Mexican False Heather
Cuphea hyssopifolia
- Habit
- Undershrub
- Found in India
- Kerala, Karnataka, Maharashtra & more
- Flowering
- May-September
How to identify Mexican False Heather
Identify Mexican False Heather by combining habit, leaf characters, flower or fruit details, location, and its family pattern. Do not rely on one feature alone.
- Look for a undershrub habit.
- Check the distinctive field mark: Tiny leaves, low mounding groundcover.
- Confirm flower colour: Purple.
- Confirm fruit type: Capsule.
- In season, compare flowering and fruiting time: May-September.
- In India, compare location records such as Kerala, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and nearby regions.
- Confirm it sits within the Lythraceae family pattern, then compare close relatives before deciding it is Mexican False Heather.
Plant Details
- Scientific name
- Cuphea hyssopifolia
- Genus
- Cuphea
- Family
- Lythraceae
- Habit
- Undershrub
- Habitat
- Garden plant
- Habitat type
- Cultivated
- Native to
- America
- Distribution
- Introduced eslewhere
- Found in India
- Kerala, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Goa, Uttarakhand, Sikkim, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi, Telangana, Tripura, Chandigarh, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Odisha, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Manipur, Uttar Pradesh
- Flowering & fruiting
- May-September
- Conservation status
- Not Evaluated (NE)
Flower & fruit characters
- Flower colour
- PurplerecordedPurple or violet
- Fruit type
- CapsulerecordedA dry fruit from a fused ovary that splits open at maturity to release seeds.“The fruit is a capsule that contains small globose seeds.” — Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0
Typical of the family
- Flower symmetry
- Zygomorphic (bilaterally symmetrical)
- Fruit
- Berry
Characters marked “recorded” are for Mexican False Heather itself; the rest are typical of the Lythraceae family — flowering plants only.
About Mexican False Heather
Mexican False Heather (Cuphea hyssopifolia) is a low shrub in the Lythraceae family. In India it has been recorded in Kerala, Karnataka, Maharashtra and 21 other states. It grows in garden plant. Flowering and fruiting run from May to September.
Lythraceae
Loosestrife/Henna family
Mexican False Heather belongs to the Lythraceae family.
The illustration represents the family — not necessarily this exact species.
Explore the Lythraceae familySnap it. Know it.
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Common plant problems
If you are starting from symptoms instead of a diagnosis, use the plant disease symptom checker to narrow the cause before treating.
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