Lanmant

Hyptis atrorubens is an aromatic, perennial herb or subshrub of the Lamiaceae (bushmint group) native to tropical America and naturalised across the wider tropics. It has erect to ascending, square stems 30-80 cm tall, often somewhat woody at the base and clothed in fine hairs. The leaves are opposite, ovate to lanceolate, toothed, and aromatic when crushed. Tiny flowers are crowded into dense, rounded, head-like cymes borne in the leaf axils, the corollas small, two-lipped, and dark reddish to purple, giving the species its epithet (atrorubens, dark red). The fruit consists of small nutlets enclosed in the persistent calyx. Like other Hyptis it is rich in essential oils and phenolic compounds such as rosmarinic acid. It grows in open, disturbed, and grassy ground, savanna margins, and along roadsides and trails.