Herbs, terrestrial, sympodial. Roots fasciculate, fleshy, villous. Stems simple, rhizomatous. Leaves few to many, basal, petiolate; blade not articulate, convolute, mostly ovate to elliptic, soft. Inflorescences terminal, many-flowered spikes or racemes, erect; scapes bracteate. Flowers resupinate, horizontal, greenish or yellowish green, small; sepals subparallel, distinct or connate at base, forming obscure mentum with base of column or sepaline nectar tube; petals connivent with dorsal sepal; lip clawed, sagittate to cordate, constricted proximal to apex; lateral margins appressed to sides of column; column erect; pollinia 2, clavate-oblong, mealy; stylar canal entrance central; stigma lobes 2, distinct or approximate; rostellum longer than wide; viscidium relatively large, disc-shaped; ovary sessile or subsessile. Fruits capsules.

All species of Cyclopogon except the holotype were placed in the genus Beadlea (L. A. Garay 1980[1982]) because their perianth base was not united into a tube. That characteristic was rejected as a valid generic distinction but the taxon was recognized as Cyclopogon sect. Beadlea (P. Burns-Balogh 1982; P. Burns-Balogh and H. Robinson 1983). The perianth tube character is a matter of degree and not one of presence or absence (D. L. Szlachetko 1993).