Rhodamnia cinerea, known locally as mempoyan, is a shrub to medium-sized tree. It grows in lowland areas to mountains and is sometimes found in coastal areas. It is common in secondary forest. Rhodamnia cinerea is widely distributed in South-East Asia from southern Myanmar, southern Thailand, Peninsular Malaysia, Sumatra, Java, Borneo and south to Australia.

Mempoyan resembles species in the Melastomataceae family due to the opposite arrangement of leaves and the three conspicuous parallel veins arising from the base of the leaves. However, they have different stamens and fruits (Utteridge & Bramley, 2014). Members of the Melastomataceae have 8 to 10 stamens and a capsule while the flowers of mempoyan have very many stamens and the fruit is a berry. Sometimes, the mempoyan fruit is covered with silky hairs. Its inflorescence is axillary with clusters of 4 to 6 flowers. Mempoyan flowers have 4 – 5 white to cream petals and a fragrant odour. It has an inferior ovary.