Mesosphaerum P. Browne

Annual or short-lived perennial herbs. Flowers in opposite several-many-flowered cincinnate, pedunculate cymes arranged in spike-like racemes or panicles; bracts leafy below, becoming smaller towards the apex. Calyx ribbed, subequally 5-toothed; the tube somewhat accrescent in fruit. Corolla small, 5-lobed, ± 2-lipped; lowest lobe saccate. Stamens 4, declinate. Fruit a lobed structure that divides into two flattened 'seeds' (mericarps).

Derivation of name: from the Greek: mesos meaning middle and sphaera, a ball or sphere, possibly referring to the fruit.

Worldwide: 24 species in tropical and subtropical America.

Zimbabwe: 2 taxa.