It has a single long, thin, dark green leaf and up to ten flowers which occur in a range of colours, most commonly blue to purple but usually with small, dark blue spots.

Thelymitra ixioides is a tuberous, perennial herb with a single channelled or corrugated, dark green thread-like to lance-shaped leaf 200–300 mm (8–10 in) long and 10–15 mm (0.4–0.6 in) wide with a purplish base.

The side lobes have dense, toothbrush-like tufts of white, pink or bluish hairs.

[2][3][4][5] Thelymitra ixioides was first formally described in 1805 by the Swedish botanist, Olof Swartz and the description was published in Neues Journal für die Botanik.

[6][7] The specific epithet (ixioides) refers to a perceived similarity to plants in the genus Ixia.