Herbs or shrubs. Leaves petiolate, dentate. Verticillasters 6- to many flowered, in racemes or panicles; bracts early deciduous or absent. Flowers pedicellate. Calyx ovoid-campanulate to campanulate, 5-toothed or conspicuously 2-lipped, posterior tooth larger; fruiting calyx dilated, declinate or recurved, throat glabrous or villous. Corolla much exserted, erect or recurved, 2-lipped; upper lip (3- or) 4-lobed, strongly reflexed; lower lip entire, elongated, navicular, narrowed at base. Stamens 4, declinate, included within lower lip; filaments connate or free, rarely adnate to corolla tube; anther cells apex confluent. Style apex equally 2-cleft. Nutlets ovoid to globose, smooth, tuberculate or not.Local names: Daponaya (Bis.); lapunaya (Bis.); malaina (Tag.); mayana (Bik., Tag.); saimayu (Sul.); taponaya (Bis.).
Mayana is an introduced plant in the Philippines and is cultivated for ornamental purposes. It is a native of Java (?) and is now cultivated in all warm countries.
This is an erect, branched somewhat fleshy, annual herb 1 meter high or less. The stems are usually purplish and 4 angled. The leaves are variously blotched or colored, usually more or less hairy, ovate, 5 to 10 centimeters long, rather coarsely toothed in the margins; and in the most common form uniformly velvety-purple. The flowers are purplish, numerous, and borne in lax, terminal, simple or branched inflorescences 15 to 30 centimeters long. The calyx is green, and about 2.5 millimeters long, with the upper lip ovate and the lateral lobes short and ovate, the lower one being 2-cleft. The corolla is about 11 millimeters long.
Guerrero states that in the Philippines the pounded leaves are said to be valuable as a cure for headaches and for the healing of bruises.
Burkill and Haniff record the use of a decoction taken internally, apparently for dyspepsia and for wasting away; and also dropped into the eyes, for ophthalmia.
