[2] Joseph Dalton Hooker and Thomas Thomson, the British botanists who first formally described the species under the basionym Orophea heyneana, named it after Benjamin Heyne a German botanist who collected and described many plant species from India.

The upper side of the leaves are matt and hairless, while the undersides are covered in sparse, fine hairs.

The yellow, oval to lance-shaped, outer petals are 7–14 by 2.5–6 millimeters and come to a point at their tips.

Its fruit occur in clusters of 4–9 on pedicels that are 3–7.5 by 0.5–1.5 millimeters and covered in sparse, fine hairs.

The fruit are attached to the pedicel by stipes that are 1–2 by 1-1.5 millimeters and covered in dense, brown, fine hairs.

[5] The bioactive molecule betulin extracted from its bark has been shown to inhibit the growth of cultured human tumor cells.