Plants 7.5-18 cm. Leaves 1-2, ascending on base or middle of stem, rather abruptly reduced to 1-2 bracts distally; blade lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate or elliptic-oblong, 2.5-8 × 0.8-2 cm. Spikes rather dense. Flowers resupinate, rather conspicuous, yellowish; corolla commonly richer yellow than more greenish calyx; lateral sepals spreading, slightly reflexed; petals ovate- to broadly lance-falcate, margins entire; lip descending, elliptic, elliptic-oblong, or elliptic-lanceolate, without basal thickening, 4-8 × 1-3 mm, margins entire; spur slenderly cylindric to clavate, 9-13 mm; rostellum lobes directed downward, closely spaced, parallel, very swollen adjacent to orifice of spur, small, obscure, rounded; pollinaria appearing straight; pollinia apparently remaining enclosed in anther sacs; viscidia oblong, perhaps varying to orbiculate; ovary stout, mostly 6-7 mm.

Flowering Jul--Aug. Exposed, wet tundra; 0--200 m; Alaska (w Aleutian Islands); Asia (Komandorskiye Islands).

Only a few specimens of Platanthera tipuloides var. behringiana have been seen, and the description is consequently somewhat imprecise.