It is a terrestrial herb with a single leaf mostly surrounding the stem, and up to 50 tiny, greenish flowers with a deep maroon-coloured labellum and often have a fruity fragrance.

[2][3][4][5] The inflorescence is a spike with from 5 to 50 crowded, tiny, non-resupinate flowers which are bright green with a dark maroon-coloured to purplish-black labellum.

[6][7] Tepper's description was formalised by Ferdinand von Mueller in 1882 with the name published in Systematic Census of Australian Plants.

[1] The World Checklist of Selected Plant Families lists C. tepperi as a synonym of Genoplesium nigricans.

[13] It is a very drought and heat tolerant species which is dormant when the soil is hard-packed and dry, growing and flowering in the cooler, wetter autumn months.