Near its apex (tip), the lip is vaguely 3-lobed with undulate margins; the lateral lobes are bluntly rounded, and the mid-lobe is shaped like a semicircle, indistinctly notched.

[3][4] The great climbing orchid was first formally described in 1861 by Ferdinand von Mueller, who gave it the name Ledgeria foliata and published the description in Fragmenta Phytographiae Australiae.

The plant has been found at elevations ranging from sea level to 1,000 m (3,000 ft) in well-developed lowland and upland rainforest, often growing on live trunks or rotting wood in old stumps, logs, etc.

[2][3] Pseudovanilla foliata is capable only of limited photosynthesis in its stems and bracts and relies heavily on mycoheterotrophic sources of nutrition by parasitizing fungi in decaying wood.

Its seeds germinate on decomposing fallen wood, and as such, plants are usually found in areas following ecological disturbance, such as forests impacted by cyclones or logging.

Though P. foliata can massively proliferate on fallen wood, its heavy dependence on decomposing fungi results in its eventual decline as the timber disintegrates.