Like the other members of Epidendrum subgenus Amphiglotium Lindl., E. ibaguense exhibits a pseudo-monopodial growth habit: it produces a vertical stem covered with the sheathing bases of distichous leaves and without the swelling typical of the pseudobulbs found in many sympodial orchids.

However, E. ibaguense is actually sympodial: the peduncle of the inflorescence, tightly covered for most of its length by thin, overlapping sheaths, is terminal, not lateral.

Like the other members of Epidendrum Amphiglotium section Schistochila Rchb.f., E. ibaguense flowers are borne on a congested, successively flowering raceme at the end of a long peduncle, and have a trilobate lip that is adnate to the column to the very apex.

Like E. radicans, (but unlike E. secundum Jacq., E. fulgens, E. puniceoluteum, and E. cinnabarinum) the flowers of E. ibaguense are resupinate.

and E. radicans, different individuals of E. ibaguense can produce flowers that are lavender, red, orange, or yellow.