Rinorea heteroclita (Roxb.) Craib, Fl. Siam. Enum. 1: 89.1925.Vareca heteroclita Roxb., Fl. Ind. 2: 446. 1824. Alsodeia roxburghii Hook. f. & Thomson in Fl. Brit. India 1: 186. 1872.

Shrubs; bark grey-brown, finely striate; branchlets terete, fulvous-puberulous. Leaves elliptic or lanceolate, cuneate at base, obtuse to apiculate, often blunt, sometimes with a mucro at apex, more or less crenate, but entire near base, 2 - 6 x 1.5 - 2 cm, glabrous, perforate at nerve axils beneath; tertiary nerves obsolete; stipules subulate, keeled, acute, 2 - 4 mm long, often ciliate. Flowers 2 - 3 mm across, white, subsessile in dense axillary clusters. Sepals ca 2 mm long, unequal, obtuse, somewhat fleshy. Petals lanceolate, 4 - 5 mm long, ca 0.75 mm wide, thin, revolute above, glabrous, more or less ciliate. Filaments glabrous. Ovary glabrous with (3) or 6 ovules; style hairy at middle portion. Capsules subglobose, tapering towards apex, ca 5 mm long; valves when open 6 - 7 mm long; seeds 1 few, ellipsoid, ca 3 mm long, brown with distinct raphe and hilum.

Fl. & Fr. March - Oct.

Distrib. India: In forests on slopes and bamboo-flats in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Assam and Andaman & Nicobar Islands.

Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand and Indonesia.

Notes. Materials are scanty in herbaria and mostly from gardens. Kanjilal et al. (Fl. Assam 1: 82. 1934) noted it from 'BEHAR' although not mentioned in Haines's flora. They say it 'appears to have spread from Bengal into South Sylhet, Wallich'. In Wallich's Numerical list, the place of collection and collector are not mentioned. M. Jacobi (Blumea 15: 136. 1967) found, on a sheet in Cambridge, 'W. Gr.' (W. Griffith), 'Serampore', and on a sheet in Paris, 'B.S.C., 14 July 1834,' the letters B.S.C. probably stands for Bhorul Singh collector, one of Wallich's employees. No other collection is available and hence the occurrence of this species in different states could not be confirmed.