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Cuphea hyssopifolia Kunth

Synonym	:	Cuphea hyssopifolia f. hyssopifolia
Family	:	Lytheraceae
Local name	:	English- Mexican False Heather
Flowering and fruiting period	:	May-September
Distribution	:	Native of America
Distribution in Kerala	:	All Districts
Habitat	:	Grown as garden plant
Endemic/Exotic	:	Exotic
Uses	:	The plant is used for ornamental purpose. It is used for indigestion, dysentery.
Key botanical characters: Erect to spreading subshrubs; stems 3-5 dm long, many-branched, puberulent and reddish strigose, the hairs sometimes spreading. Leaves 10-30 x 1.5-4 mm, linear, sometimes the larger ones linear-elliptic, 1-nerved, subsessile. Flowers solitary in the leaf axils, pedicels 2-7 mm long; floral tube pale green, sometimes becoming purplish toward apex, 5-8 m long, glabrous or with a few stiff hairs. Calyx teeth triangular. Petals 6, pale purple or white, ca. 3-3.5 mm long. Stamens included and inserted in 2 unequal whorls on the floral tube. Capsules oblong-ovoid, 1-celled, ca. 3.5 mm long; seeds reddish brown, suborbicular, ca. 1-1.5 mm in diameter, pitted.