It is native to Bangladesh, Borneo, Cambodia, Laos, Peninsular Malaysia, Myanmar, Sumatra, and Vietnam.

[2] Joseph Hooker and Thomas Thomson, the British botanists who first formally described the species, named it in honor of Alexander Carroll Maingay, the British botanist who collected the specimen they examined.

The leaves have pointed or short tapering tips and shallowly angled or rounded bases.

Each flower is born on a pedicel that is 10-70 by 1 millimeters and densely covered in fine brown hairs.

The oval to elliptical outer petals are 10-35 by 7-17 millimeters with pointed tips and wavy margins when mature.

[3][4] Using the synonymous name, Mitrephora teysmannii, Yunyun Shao and Fengxia Xu report that the pollen of M. maingayi is shed as permanent tetrads.

[5] It has been observed growing in lowlands or lower mountainous habitats at elevations up to 1200 meters.