A caespitose, erect deciduous herb with an epiphytic habit that grows between 15-75  cm.  Roots: flattened, gray.  Stems: thin, fusiform, pedunculate (stalked), grayish-white, with 4-5 internodes, 2-25 cm. in length.  Older stems are covered with scarious, papery bracts.  Leaves: 2-6 linear-lanceolate, acuminate, distichous, subsucculent, present only on the newly developing growth and appressed to the stem via an articulated joint.  Inflorescence: terminal, erect, frequently arching, panicle (rarely a raceme), from the new growth, on an elongated subterete, rather thin peduncle with 5-9 internodes covered by tubular bracts (scarious at anthesis), from 6.5-35 cm in length with 3-60 flowers arranged in a horizontal plane.  Flowers: Attractive, resupinate, sweetly fragrant, 1.4-2.6 cm diameter spread, with the tepals straight and extended in the same plane and held over the descending lip. Color of the segments is variable in the population ranging from pure white to dark magenta with intense color saturation.  Sepals are usually somewhat darker than the petals with darker venation evident.   Lip is white, greyish-white or yellowish with magenta pigmentation over the raised veins and margins.  Sepals are subequal, extended, lanceolate, acute-acuminate, with seven conspicuous parallel veins, incurved or flat with the margins reflexed making them concave.  Petals are lanceolate, acuminate to obtuse, with five parallel vein, in the same plane as the dorsal sepal and positioned at a 45° angle to it.  Both lip and column point down in their natural configuration.  The lip is entire, ovate, acuminate, acute, basally cuneate, fused to the column, strongly concave with the basal margins raised and incurved, and the apex is extended or deflexed.  Callus is a white, raised platform, deeply sulcate to form a fovea with three longitudinal rows of white or transparent warty or papillose veins that extend forward but do not reach the apex.  The subtrigonous column is winged, short, pinkish or purple-red apically but green at the base, somewhat incurved, dorsiventrally flattened into a flabellate outline with a truncate but relatively wide apex with three teeth.  The ventral surface of the column is convex and longitudinally sulcate.  Anther is reddish and the same color as the apex of the column. 

Endemic to Mexico in the Transverse Volcanic Belt (Michoacan and Mexico State) and the Sierra Madre del Sur (Guerrero and Oaxaca).

Populations are scattered and non-contiguous. It tends to grow in highly localized ecological niches where it can be rampant, but will not colonize adjacent areas with seemingly suitable habitat.  Relatively rare in the wild. 

Dry oak forests or subtropical scrub.  It is commonly seen growing on vertical cliffs or rocky escarpments at the top of hills where there is a constant breeze.  It seems that this species requires high light levels including full sun, but the temperatures must be attenuated with cooling winds for the best growing conditions.  The roots are rarely seen growing into a substrate and prefer to be naked as they snake along the surface of a rock or tree branch. 

1000-2000 meters above sea level.  The Michoacan populations are at the higher elevation limits between 1800-2000 meters while the rest of the populations seem to grow best between 1400-1700 meters. 

September – November.  The populations from Michoacán are in bloom as early as mid September.

According to the Mexican government, this species is “Under Special Protection”.  This category was established to protect species that still have large populations but which are still under threat by over-collecting or habitat destruction.

The intense scarlet-magenta coloration of the flowers is highly desired in the progeny as is the tendency for hybrids made with this species to express yellow coloration.  It may seem counterintuitive but crossing with Barkeria scandens enhances yellow coloration rather than hides it.  The species is easily grown although it requires cool evening temperatures in the fall when the spike is emerging for the flowers to showcase their maximum splendor. The flowers will last up to three weeks as cut flowers and this durability may be imparted to the hybrids.