Silver spurflower

Description

Coleus argentatus, synonym Plectranthus argentatus, common name silver spurflower, is a species of flowering plant in the mint family. It is native to rock outcrops and rainforest in the border region of Queensland and New South Wales, Australia. Growing to 1 m (3 ft) tall and broad, it is a spreading deciduous shrub. The hairy leaves are ovate to broad-ovate, 5–11.5 cm long, 3–5.5 cm wide with crenate margins. The hairs give the plant an overall sage green to silvery colour. The flowers are borne on terminal racemes up to 30 cm (12 in) long, and are bluish white. Originally described by Queensland botanist Stanley Thatcher Blake, its specific epithet argentatus is Latin for "silver", referring to its foliage. Coleus argentatus is cultivated in temperate regions as an ornamental bedding plant for its attractive silvery foliage. It strikes readily from cuttings, or can be grown from seed as a half-hardy annual. It has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit. Plectranthus, with some 85 species, is a genus of herbaceous perennial plants, rarely annuals or soft-wooded shrubs, sometimes succulent; sometimes with a tuberous base. Common names include spur-flower. Plectranthus species are found in Southern and Tropical Africa and Madagascar, and one in Sri Lanka. Several species are grown as ornamental plants. The cultivar Mona Lavender = 'Plepalila' has received the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit. They are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species including the engrailed (Ectropis crepuscularia). Recent phylogenetic analysis found Plectranthus to be paraphyletic with respect to Coleus, Solenostemon, Pycnostachys and Anisochilus. The most recent treatment of the genus resurrected the genus Coleus, and 212 names were changed from combinations in Plectranthus, Pycnostachys and Anisochilus. Equilabium was segregated from Plectranthus, after phylogenetic studies supported its recognition as a phylogenetically distinct genus.