the many Pleasures of Plectranthus

From bedding to bonsai, there's something for everyone in this genus

- VICTOR LAZZARI

What if I told you that there was a group of plants as pretty as the salvias, as pest-resistant as the salvias, as versatile and adaptable as the salvias—but they’re not salvias? “Lies!” you exclaim. “He’s crazy. Cray-cray!”

And you know what? Guilty as charged—I am indeed crazy. Crazy about plectranthus, that is!

Plectranthus is a diverse genus of plants in the Lamiaceae, or mint family, first recorded by the French botanist Charles Louis L’Héritier de Brutelle in the 1700s. The genus displays most of the telltale Lamiaceae characteristics: square stems, oppositely arranged leaves and bilabiate (two-lipped) flowers similar to those of their salvia cousins, as well as beebalm, agastache and others in the family. Many plectranthus have a pointed spur at the base of each individual flower, which led to “spurflower” becoming a common name for some of them. There are about 85 species distributed across tropical and subtropical regions of the Old World, with Africa, Asia and Australia being prominent plectranthus hotbeds.

1. The plectranthus colloquially known as Ecklon's spurflower (foreground; cultivar 'Tommy) matures to resemble a lilac shrub in USDA Zone 9 and warmer. Elsewhere it might be tried as a large container plant to winter under cover.