Centrostigma occultans is a leafy plant. It bears seven to ten narrowly lanceolate leaves tapering to acute tips. They are cauline, reducing in size up the stem and continue among the flowers, grading into the smaller, leaf-like floral bracts. The leaves sheathe the somewhat angular stem, the lowest one or two are often reduced to just the sheaths. The green, smooth leaves are erect or nearly so.

The exceptionally long whitish threads seen hanging down from the flowers in picture are the cylindrical spurs growing from the back of the lip (Leistner, (Ed.), 2000; www.orchidspecies.com).