It has two narrow leaves and a narrow, greenish to purplish or brownish flower with a short, shiny black, ant-like callus covering the lower quarter of the diamond-shaped labellum.

[2][3][4][5] Chiloglottis trapeziformis was first formally described in 1877 by Robert D. FitzGerald and the description was published in his book Australian Orchids from a specimen collected "at Liverpool".

[6] The broad-lip bird orchid is widespread and common in sheltered sites in a wide range of habitats.

[3][5][4][7][8] A single vagrant population, now extinct, was known from a pine plantation near Levin in New Zealand.

[9] Chiloglottis trapeziformis is listed as "endangered" in Tasmania under the Threatened Species Protection Act 1995.