Shrubs or small trees. Leaves alternate or rarely opposite or spiral, distichous, entire or serrate; secondary nerves numerous and parallel; petiole short or absent; stipules caducous to persistent, often longitudinally striate. Flowers bisexual or rarely unisexual, sometimes plants dioecious, regular, solitary or usually racemose, cymose or paniculate, rarely in axillary or terminal cymes; peduncles articulate. Sepals almost equal, rigid, ciliate. Petals isomorphic or subequal, free, sessile. Stamens inserted on margin of an annular disc; connective produced into a long or short, often broad membranous appendage. Ovary tricarpellary, unilocular with 3 parietal placentae; ovules 1 - 3 on each placenta, rarely numerous; style straight, with a terminal more or less distinctly 3-lobed stigma. Fruits capsular, 3-valved, globose, subtended by floral parts. Seeds 3 - 6, ellipsoid, glabrous, rarely woolly with leathery testa.
America, Africa, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Indonesia to N.
Australia, Malagasy, in tropical areas; about 200 species, 4 in India.
Literature.
JACOBS, M. (1967) florae Malesianae Praecunores XLV. Notes on Rinorea
(Vioilceae) from Malesia and adjacent regions. Blumea 15(1):127 -138.
Notes. Rinorea Aublet (1775) has long been known under its later synonym Alsodeia Thouars (1806).
KEY TO THE SPECIES
1a. Leaves 2 - 5 cm long, subsessile; stamens exserted; anthers cohering into a cone
