7342.000 Hyptis Jacq.

Annual or short-lived perennial herbs. Flowers in opposite several-many-flowered cymes arranged in spike-like racemes or panicles; bracts leafy below, becoming smaller towards apex. Calyx ribbed, subequally 5-toothed; the tube somewhat accrescent in fruit. Corolla small, 5-lobed, ± 2-lipped; lowest lobe saccate. Stamens 4, declinate.

Comment: Following a recent revision of the subfamily Hyptidinae (Harley & Pastore in Phytotaxa 58: 1-55, 2012) the introduced species in Zimbabwe, formerly placed in this genus have been moved to Cantinoa or Mesosphaerum.

Worldwide: 164 species in warm and tropical areas of America and West Africa with a few weedy species elsewhere in the Old World tropics.

Malawi: 1 taxon.