Coleus barbatus (Andrews) Benth. ex G.Don

Lamiaceae (Labiatae), A.J. Paton, G. Bramley, O. Ryding, R.M. Polhill, Y.B. Harvey, M. Iwarsson, F. Willis, P.B. Phillipson, K. Balkwill, C.W. Lukhoba, D.F. Otieno, & R.M. Harley. Flora of Tropical East Africa. 2009

Type

Type: illustration of cultivated material in Bot. Rep. 9, t. 594 (1809) holo.; Eritrea, Dekemehare, Colville 47 (K!, epitype, C, photo. of epitype)

Morphology General Habit

Aromatic perennial succulent shrub, (0.2–)1–3(–4.5) m tall

Morphology Stem

Stems erect or ascending, sometimes creeping at base, rounded-quadrangular, branching, softly wooded and brittle, pubescent to villose with short or long antrorse or rarely retrorse eglandular hairs and patent glandular or eglandular hairs and with red sessile glands, with indumentum of inflorescence axis abruptly becoming glandular, viscid and less dense and with short or long glandular patent hairs and red and yellowish sessile glands

Morphology Leaves

Leaves spreading, fleshy, petiolate; blades elliptic to ovate, 0.9–20 × 0.5–11 cm, serrate or crenate, obtuse to rounded, base cuneate, broadly cuneate, truncate or subcordate, attenuate at petiole, pubescent to lanate, with red sessile glands; petiole 3–50 mm long

Morphology Reproductive morphology Inflorescences

Inflorescence lax with 10(–14)-flowered verticils 5–25 mm apart in fruit; cymes sessile, 5(–7)-flowered, dichasial at first branch producing two lateral condensed cincinni; bracts ovate, apiculate, 5–20 mm long, erect above forming a conspicuous terminal coma, cucullate, enclosing buds, soon deciduous; pedicels 3–7 mm long, ascending, shortly flattened, distally curved

Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers Calyx

Calyx 3–5 mm, sparsely pubescent to villose, with red and yellowish sessile glands, often purplish; fruiting calyx 6–10 mm long, shortly tubular and with pedicel attached excentrically behind posterior lip; throat truncate, densely villose; posterior lip elliptic, apiculate at apex, curving upwards, decurrent; anterior lip 4-lobed, lobes lanceolate, median longer than lateral

Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers Corolla

Corolla blue or purple, (7–)8–26 mm long, with scattered red glands or hairs on lobes; tube 5–12 mm long, sigmoid; posterior lip much shorter than anterior; anterior lip 8–15 mm long, finally horizontal, deeply cucullate enclosing stamens

Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers Androecium Stamens

Staminal filaments fused

Morphology Reproductive morphology Fruits

Nutlets pale brown to black, smooth, with dark gland dots, broadly ovoid, slightly flattened, 1.5–2 mm long, producing copious speckled mucilage when wet.