Coleus scutellarioides (L.) Benth., Pl. Asiat. Rar. 2: 16. 1830; Fl. China @ eFloras.org 17: 293; C. blumei Benth., Labiat. Gen. Spec. 56. 1832; Plectranthus scutellarioides (L.) R. Br., Prodr. Fl. Nov. Holl. 506. 1810; Solenostemon blumei (Benth.) M. Gomez, Bol. Secr. Agric. Comerc. Trab., Cuba 22: 127. 1914; S. scutellarioides (L.) Codd, Bothalia 11: 439. 1975.

Perennial herb, up to 1.5 m tall. Stem erect, ascending, branched, quadrangular, usually purple, puberulent or glabrous. Leaves opposite; petiole 1-5 cm, quadrangular, with adaxial groove, sparsely pilose; leaf blade 4-17 cm x 3-10 cm, ovate-deltoid to broadly ovate, highly variable in coloration, usually brightly coloured or blotched, combination of yellow, dark red, purple or green, puberulent, sparsely red-brown glandular abaxially, base broadly cuneate to truncate or rounded, margin crenate-serrate or crenate, apex obtuse, acute to shortly acuminate. Inflorescence terminal racemes or panicles, 5-25 cm x 3-8 cm; flowers in verticillasters or in irregularly branched and sessile cymes, inflorescence axis pale yellow, quadrangular with one groove on each side, finely tomentose; bracts 2-3 mm long, broadly ovate, long acuminate or caudate, glandular, deciduous; pedicels 2-3 mm long, finely tomentose. Flowers bisexual, zygomorphic, hypogynous, blue or purple. Calyx obliquely campanulate, ca. 4 mm long, minutely hispid, gland-dotted, 10-veined; tube ca. 1 mm long; limb 2- lipped; upper lip 1-lobed, lobe broadly ovate, ca. 3 mm x 2 mm, rounded to acute at apex; lower lip 4-lobed, 2 laterals ca. 1.2 mm x 0.7 mm, ovate-oblong, apex rounded; 2 lower teeth narrowly triangular, connate, lobe ca 1.5 mm x 1 mm. Corolla purple, blue or mauve, 0.8-1 cm, puberulent; tube 5 mm long, abruptly recurved, declinate, throat up to 2.5 mm wide; limb 2-lipped; upper lip erect, ca. 1.5 mm x 3 mm, 4-lobed, 2 middle lobes larger than the outer 2; lower lip longer than the upper, ca. 4 mm long and 5 mm broad, deeply concave, boat-shaped. Stamens 4, filaments ca. 3 mm long, usually united 1-2 mm at base and adnate to corolla (lower lip), included with style in lower lip of corolla. Carpels 2, syncarpous, ovary superior, 4-lobed to base, lobes 1-locular, solitary ovules per loculus; style slender, gynobasic, ca. 6 mm long; stigma bifid.

Nutlets brown, lenticular to broadly ovoid or subglobose, 1-1.2 mm, glossy. (Fruits not observed)

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