Sloanea sterculiacea var. assamica

Sloanea sterculiacea var. assamica (Benth.) Coode, Kew Bull. 38(3): 387–388 1983. (syn: Echinocarpus assamicus Benth.; Sloanea assamica (Benth.) Rehder & E. H. Wilson);
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SE-Tibet, China (NW-Yunnan), Myanmar [Burma] (Kachin, Sagaing), India (Darjeeling, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya), Sikkim, Bhutan as per CoL;
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Common name: Assam Sloanea
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Trees, 20-25 m tall, buttressed; branchlets glabrous. Leaves simple, alternate, spiral; petioles ca. 3.5-5 cm long, thickened and geniculate at apex, glabrous; lamina ca. 12.5-25 x 5-10 cm, ovate, obovate or elliptic-oblong or oblanceolate, cuneate, rounded or subcordate at base, acute to abruptly short acuminate at apex, serrulate, glabrous or tomentose beneath, veins prominent beneath, coriaceous. Flowers axillary, solitary, or in few-flowered fascicles, ca. 2-3 cm across, white; pedicels ca. 2-4 cm long; sepals 4, ca. 6-9 mm long, unequal, ovate or oblong, tomentose; petals 4, ca. 6-9 mm long, oblong or suborbicular, pubescent; stamens numerous; filaments ca. 2-4 cm long, densely hairy; anthers ca. 2-3 mm long, linear or oblong, shortly awned; disc flattened, pitted; ovary globose or ovoid, densely tomentose, 4- loculed; style ca. 5-6 mm long, subulate, hairy at base, sometimes twisted at apex. Capsules ca. 4.5-7 cm across, globose to ovoid, pendulous, 5-valved, valves covered with dense pointed stiff spines, ca. 1-2 cm long. Seeds 4.
Flowering: October-November. Fruiting: January-April.
In moist deciduous forests between 800 and 1000 m.
India: West Bengal (Darjeeling), Sikkim, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya, Bhutan and Myanmar
(Attributions- Ayyappan. N & V. Kokilavani, French Institute of Pondicherry, Compiled from various sources listed in the reference as per India Biodiversity Portal)
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Sloanea sterculiacea var. assamica: 3 high res. images.
Sloanea sterculiacea var. assamica
Behali Reserve Forest, Biswanath, Assam, India