Solenostemon scutellaroides (L.) Codd

Horticultural & Botanical History

Introduced to Britain in 1764 via Belgian nurseries.  [Don].  ‘We are indebted for our first knowledge of this plant in a living state to Mr. Low, of Clapton Nursery, who received the plant from Belgium, as a native of Java; but even there, Blume speaks of it only as cultivated in gardens.  As such it is an extremely ornamental plant, the leaves being intensely mottled and blotched with deep purple or sanguineous stains, while the long whorled racemes of flowers are prettily varied with purple and white.  Nothing is more easily cultivated, and no stove should be without it, for it flowers through the summer, and till the setting in of the winter.’  [BM t.4754/1853].  Illustration Horticole figures Coleus blumei var. Vershaffelti, with very dark leaves with mottled green edges [IH pl.293/1861] and Flore des Serres a number of varieties [FS f.801/1853, FS f.1544-1545/1863].

History at Camden Park

Listed only in the 1857 catalogue [T.764/1857].  Plants were obtained from the Sydney Botanic Garden on 17th October 1853 [RBGS AB].

Notes

Plectranthus ornatus Codd (1975) = Coleus comosus Hochst. ex Gürke.  This is not Macarthur’s plant.