It is a lithophytic orchid with up to four leaves and up to thirty or more yellowish green flowers which smell like urine.

Each flower has a pedicel 6–16 mm (0.2–0.6 in) long, including the ovary.

[2][3][4][5][6] Tom cats was first formally described in 1810 by Robert Brown who gave it the name Cymbidium reflexum and published the description in Prodromus Florae Novae Hollandiae et Insulae Van Diemen.

[9] The specific epithet (reflexa) is a Latin word meaning "bent" or "turned back".

[10] Liparis reflexa usually grows on rocks, including on escarpments and boulders in gorges and only rarely on trees.