Small epiphyte or terrestrial. Pseudobulbs terete, to 7 cm long. Leaves narrowlanceolate, to 10 cm long, to 2 cm wide, green with brown to purplish spots. Flowers many, to 1 cm long, nodding, produced in succession, bright magenta; summer. Sepals elliptic. Petals narrow-lanceolate. Labellum obscurely 3-lobed, deeply concave. Syn. Hartwegia purpurea Lindl. var. angustifolia Lindl.

Guatemala.

N. purpurea (Lindl.) L.O.Williams from Mexico, Guatemala &Honduras, is a popular small epiphyte with long racemes of many small, successively opening, reddish-purple flowers, each with a spur at the base of the labellum. Syn. Hartwegia purpurea Lindl.

Source: Jeanes, J. (2005). Orchidaceae. In: Spencer, R.. Horticultural Flora of South-eastern Australia. Volume 5. Flowering plants. Monocotyledons. The identification of garden and cultivated plants. University of New South Wales Press.