Both species have a long, horizontal, underground rhizome with a single leaf on the flowering stem and a single resupinate flower with its dorsal sepal forming a hood over the labellum and column.

Orchids in the genus Adenochilus are terrestrial, perennial, deciduous, sympodial herbs with a long, thin, horizontal underground rhizome and a single leaf either on a long stalk or attached to the flowering stem.

The labellum is also free, attached at the base of the column by a short stalk or "claw".

[3][4][5][6] The genus Adenochilus was first formally described in 1853 by Joseph Dalton Hooker and the description was published in Flora Novae-Zelandiae.

is widespread in New Zealand where it often grows in deep leaf litter under beech trees and sometimes near wetlands.