Radermachera glandulosa is a small tree with a straight bole. The bark is shallowly fissured and greyish. The leaves are once pinnate and bear 3–7 leaflets. They are deep purple when young. The leaflets are elliptic to oblanceolate, often with glands on the lower surface that are visited by ants. It gets its name ‘glandulosa’ from the glands on the lower surface of the leaf base. The glands are pinkish and turn black.

The inflorescences are paniculate and bear many flowers. The dark purple, campanulate calyx is shallowly lobed at the apex and is glabrous. The corolla tube is whitish tinged with purple, while the five entire lobes are whitish inside and pale purplish outside. The four stamens are in unequal pairs and are glandular hairy at the point of insertion. The capsule is straight and cylindrical. It hangs singly or in bunches. The seeds are many with silvery, transparent, narrowly oblong wings.

It is common throughout Peninsular Malaysia where it grows in primary or secondary forest on hillsides, frequently by streams, at 150–915 m altitude. Elsewhere this species also distributed from S China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Borneo and the Philippines.