It has tiny, crowded, slightly flattened, dark green pseudobulbs, a single thick, fleshy leaf and a single dark red to purplish red flower with a narrow labellum.

Bulbophyllum macphersonii is an epiphytic or lithophytic herb that forms dense clumps.

[2][3][4] The small eyelash orchid was first formally described in 1934 by Herman Rupp and the description was published in The Victorian Naturalist.

[5] It had previously been described in 1884 by Frederick Manson Bailey, intending his description to be published in Robert D. Fitzgerald's book Australian Orchids.

[7] The names of two varieties of this orchid are accepted by the World Checklist of Selected Plant Families: Bulbophyllum newportii grows on trees, rocks and cliff faces in sheltered rainforest and open forest.