Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Any of various plants in the mint family formerly of the genus Coleus, especially Solenostemon scutellarioides and some species in the genus Plectranthus, native to tropical Africa and Asia and widely grown as ornamentals for their multicolored leaves.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A plant of several species of the mint family, cultivated for its bright-colored or variegated leaves.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[New Latin Coleus, genus name, from Greek koleos, sheath (from the way the filaments of its stamens are joined in a tube); see kel- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Ancient Greek a sheath, referring to the manner in which the stamens are united.

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Examples

Comments

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  • Extremely easy to propigate from cuttings

    January 24, 2008

  • "Against the uniform sheet of snow and the greyish winter sky the Italian villa loomed up rather grimly; even in summer it kept its distance, and the boldest coleus bed had never ventured nearer than thirty feet from its awful front."

    - Edith Wharton, 'The Age of Innocence'.

    September 19, 2009