Cuitlauzina pendula is native to Western Mexico. They grows on trees in oak or pine forests, in the coastal mountains surrounding the Balsas Basin over the Pacific Ocean. These plants are also found near Morelia and Talpa in the states of Michoacan and Jalisco, usually at heights of 1400-2200 m. There are also reports of their occurrence in the states of Sinaloa and Guerrero, and not very certain reports from the states of Mexico, Oaxaca and Chiapas. It is a small to medium sized, cool to cold growing epiphyte and sometime terrestrial, which reaching 38 cm in height, with a short rhizome carrying ovoid, clustered, compressed, ancipitous, dull or glossy light green, sulcate with age, up to 8 cm tall pseudobulbs carrying 2 apical, coriaceous, broadly ligulate, acute or obtuse, coriaceous, 30 cm long leaves.