A small and common plant, it has dark green lance-shaped to egg-shaped leaves and up to twelve greenish flowers with a large, bonnet-like or hood-like, lilac-coloured labellum with a network of purple veins.

The most prominent feature of the flower is its hood- or bonnet-shaped labellum which is 20–30 mm (0.8–1 in) long and 10–15 mm (0.4–0.6 in) wide, greenish to lilac-coloured with a network of purple or maroon veins and a few purple spots.

[2][3][4][5] Cryptostylis erecta was first formally described in 1810 by Robert Brown and the description was published in Prodromus Florae Novae Hollandiae et Insulae Van Diemen.

[8] The natural habitat of C. erecta is on sandy soils, dry eucalyptus woodlands and heathlands.

[9][10] Cryptostylis erecta has been successfully grown by orchid enthusiasts, but is slow growing.