It is native to Borneo, the Malay Peninsula, the Nicobar Islands, Sumatra and Thailand.

[2] Joseph Dalton Hooker and Thomas Thomson, the British botanists who first formally described the species, named it after part of its habitat range, British Malaya (now referred to as the Malay Peninsula).

Its bark is finely wrinkled and light colored with parts covered in greenish-brown hair.

Its green, oval to triangular sepals are 2-8 by 3–7.5 millimeters with margins that are fused at their base.

The inner surface of the outer petals are slightly to densely covered in small dark, silky hairs except near their base.

The yellow to gold-colored inner petals are 0.77–1.4 × 0.4–0.75 centimeters and have a 1–2.6 millimeter wide claw at their base.

The connective tissue between the lobes of the anther terminates abruptly at its apex and is hairy.

The seeds are sparsely hairy with patches of long white or gold-colored hairs.