Lepanthes dougdarlingii is similar to L. hortensis Luer & R.Escobar, but is easily distinguished by its prolific habit; the lip with blades oblong to obovate, rounded, marginally ciliate and the appendix ligulate to oblong, saccate in the middle, with an apical gland-like structure.Plant terrestrial, sympodial, caespitose, prolific herb up to 35 cm tall, caespitose and prolific. Rootsslender, flexuous, filiform, ca. 1 mm in diameter. Ramicauls slender, erect, frequently producing additional ramicauls from the apex, up to 27 cm long, enclosed by 10–21, ribbed lepanthiform sheaths with minutely ciliate, long acuminate ostia. Leaf green to olive, horizontal, ovate, attenuate, coriaceous, carinate along the main vein on the abaxial surface, 2.0–4.5 × 1.2–2.3 cm, the rounded base contracted into a petiole ca. 2 mm long, the apex emarginate with an apiculus in the middle. Inflorescence a congested, successively-flowered, distichous raceme shorter than the leaf, borne from either surface of the leaf, up to 2.6 cm long, with the flowers usually hanging on one side of the leaf; peduncle filiform, up to 2 cm; floral bracts ca. 1.6 mm long. Ovary costate, 2.3 mm long. Flowers with amber sepals suffused with rust along the veins, fulvous petals suffused with rust along the mid vein and along two lines radiating from the base on both sides of the mid vein, the white lip suffused with mauve along the blade margins; dorsal sepal triangular-ovate, margins denticulate, attenuate, 3-veined, abaxially carinate along the veins, connate at the base to the lateral sepals for ca. 1.9 mm, 6.9 × 4.7 mm; lateral sepals ovate, margins denticulate, shortly acuminate, 2-veined, abaxially carinate along the veins, connate for ca. 2 mm, 6 × 3 mm. Petalstransversely bilobed with a small, rounded marginal lobe at the apex, 1.2 × 4.3 mm, the upper lobe oblong, short pubescent, truncate, the apex with a small tooth-like lobe near the interior margin, 2 mm long; the lower lobe triangular, sigmoid, pubescent, acute, 2.3 mm long. Lip bilaminate, the blades adherent medially above the column, oblong to obovate, membranous, the margins ciliate rounded, 2.2 × 0.8