This tropical Asiatic genus extends from Myanmar, India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Thailand, Vietnam, the Ryukyu Islands, Malaysia, Singapore, China to Indonesia, the Philippines and New Guinea.

It has become naturalized in Réunion, Fiji, French Polynesia, Micronesia, the West Indies, Costa Rica, Panama, Belize, and Hawaii.

This orchid blooms in summer and autumn, showing rather open clusters of showy terminal flowers, ten at the most.

These flowers, 5–8 cm in diameter, are a rosy lilac and white disc with a purple lip.

At one point in time only 200 of the plants were recorded growing naturally in Singapore, rendering the species close to extinction.