Species
+

Coleus scutellarioides (L.) Benth.

Buntnessel (DE), Coleo, Coleus, Nazareno

Climate known 79 photographs
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Coleus scutellarioides, commonly known as coleus, is a species of flowering plant in the family Lamiaceae, native to southeast Asia through to Australia. Typically growing to 60–75 cm (24–30 in) tall and wide, it is a bushy, woody-based evergreen perennial, widely grown for the highly decorative variegated leaves found in cultivated varieties.

Text from Wikipedia, “Coleus scutellarioides”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Coleus

Coleus is a genus of annual or perennial herbs or shrubs, sometimes succulent, sometimes with a fleshy or tuberous rootstock, found in the Afro-Eurasia tropics and subtropics.

Text from Wikipedia, “Coleus”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Lamiaceae
Described by
(L.) Benth.
Native to
China Southeast, Nansei-shoto, Taiwan +20
Wild records
938 in range· 681 open

At a glance

Warmest month
29°C
Apr, mean day; nights 23 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1994mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Jan 301 mm (CHELSA)
Light
31–39DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: a sharp rainy season, November to May at the habitat (not shifted); the temperature curve is flat (2.8 °C of range), so no growing season is inferred. Habitat rain 1994 mm a year, wettest January at 301 mm, driest August at 77 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 31 to 39 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 19.1 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Calchas acuminatus (Benth.) P.V.Heath; Calchas atropurpureus (Benth.) P.V.Heath; Calchas crispipilus (Merr.) P.V.Heath; Calchas scutellarioides (L.) P.V.Heath; Calchas scutellarioides var. angustifolia (Benth.) P.V.Heath and 45 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a sharp rainy season, November to May at the habitat (not shifted); the temperature curve is flat (2.8 °C of range), so no growing season is inferred.

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a sharp season: 70% of the year's rain (1512 mm of 1994 mm) falls in November to May. The temperature curve is flat, 2.8 °C between the warmest and coldest month, so the growing-season rule does not infer a growing season from it. Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; with a flat temperature curve there is no season to reverse, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 1994 mm a year, wettest January at 301 mm, driest August at 77 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1994 mm a year at the habitat, 1512 mm of it November to May. Wettest month January at 301 mm, driest August at 77 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1161 mm to 3768 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 31 to 39 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 31 to 39 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 24, the highest 90th-percentile month 45).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor 19.1 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 19.1 °C, the absolute minimum 17.3 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 24.4 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 19.3 °C in July (across the envelope cells 14.2 °C to 24.9 °C), warmest day 29.1 °C in April (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 19.1 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 63 to 66% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 28 °C in Jun to 29 °C in Apr; mean night from 19 °C in Jul to 24 °C in Nov. The cold quarter, Jun to Aug, is the three months around the coldest night. 1994 mm of rain a year, most in Jan. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 708 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 17.3 °C and the 99th-percentile day 24.4 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.10°15°20°25°30°35°40°24.4° 99th-percentile day (undated)17.3° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 31–39RH 63–66 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 708 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C28 / 20–3229 / 21–3229 / 22–3229 / 23–3329 / 23–3228 / 22–3128 / 22–3129 / 22–3229 / 23–3529 / 24–3629 / 23–3629 / 21–34
Night °C23 / 14–2623 / 14–2623 / 15–2523 / 17–2622 / 16–2620 / 15–2519 / 14–2520 / 15–2521 / 16–2523 / 16–2524 / 16–2624 / 14–26
Rain mm301 / 51–450281 / 52–432250 / 72–414145 / 45–343144 / 10–335115 / 1–36894 / 2–38177 / 1–38388 / 5–387108 / 23–343151 / 60–342240 / 83–388
DLI33 / 25–3833 / 26–3735 / 28–3835 / 28–4033 / 27–3631 / 25–3432 / 26–3535 / 28–3938 / 29–4339 / 28–4538 / 26–4535 / 24–41
RH %66 / 61–7166 / 62–7164 / 59–7164 / 53–7164 / 49–7164 / 47–7164 / 46–7163 / 46–7163 / 48–7063 / 51–7063 / 56–7164 / 59–71

Each figure is the median across the 708 grid cells holding the 899 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1888:6659 (-4.425, 152.975). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 17.3 °C, 1st-percentile night 19.1 °C, 99th-percentile day 24.4 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 708 distinct grid cells holding the 899 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1888:6659 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -4.50_153.125, lapse-corrected +816 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 986 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeChina Southeast, Nansei-shoto, Taiwan, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Borneo, Jawa, Lesser Sunda Is., Malaya, Maluku, Philippines, Sulawesi, Sumatera, Bismarck Archipelago, New Guinea, Solomon Is., Northern Territory, Queensland, Western Australia, Vanuatu· introduced: Guinea, Rwanda, Comoros, Bangladesh, East Himalaya, Gilbert Is., Niue, New Caledonia, Samoa, Tokelau-Manihiki, Tonga, Wallis-Futuna Is., Cook Is., Marquesas, Society Is., Tuamotu, Tubuai Is., Caroline Is., Marianas, Marshall Is., Wake I., Hawaii, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast, Belize, Costa Rica, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Puerto Rico, Trinidad-Tobago, Venezuelan Antilles, Windward Is., Venezuela, Colombia
Kew's description“subshrub” · “wet tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker-13.291, 131.949 · in the densest population, 180 records (19% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 938 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 681 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 1 km away. 735 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 39 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 938 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Coleus scutellarioidesColeus scutellarioidesColeus scutellarioidesColeus scutellarioidesColeus scutellarioidesColeus scutellarioidesColeus scutellarioidesColeus scutellarioides

Photographs: (c) Thomas Mesaglio, some rights reserved (CC BY) (8).

Photographs: iNaturalist and Wikimedia Commons did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Coleus scutellarioides, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Green synthesis of gold nanoparticles from Coleus scutellarioides (L.) Benth leaves and assessment of anticancer and antioxidant properties
Sarah Shakir Al-Mafarjy, Nursakinah Suardi, Naser M. Ahmed, Daruliza Kernain (2024) · Inorganic Chemistry Communications
Uji Aktivitas Antibakteri Ekstrak Etanol Tanaman Obat Suku Musi di Kabupaten Musi Banyuasin, Sumatera Selatan
Muharni Maryadi, Fitrya Yusuf, Sofa Farida (2017) · Jurnal Kefarmasian Indonesia
Constitutive and facultative crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM) in Cuban oregano, Coleus amboinicus (Lamiaceae)
Klaus Winter, Aurelio Virgo, Milton García, Jorge Aranda (2020) · Functional Plant Biology
Journey of Rosmarinic Acid as Biomedicine to Nano-Biomedicine for Treating Cancer: Current Strategies and Future Perspectives
MVNL Chaitanya, Arya Kadukkattil Ramanunny, Malakapogu Ravindra Babu, Monica Gulati (2022) · Pharmaceutics
Immunomodulator Potential of Miana Leaves(Coleus scutellarioides (L) Benth) in Prevention of Tuberculosis Infection
Sesilia Rante Pakadang, Chatarina Umbul Wahjuni, Hari Basuki Notobroto, Dwi Winarni (2015) · American journal of microbiological research
Formulasi Sediaan Lip Cream Ekstrak Daun Miana (Coleus scuatellariodes [L] Benth.) sebagai Pewarna Alami
Vera Estefania Kaban, Nasri Nasri, Kasta Gurning, Hariyadi Dharmawan Syahputra (2022) · INSOLOGI Jurnal Sains dan Teknologi
Quantitative dissection of color patterning in the foliar ornamental coleus
Mao Li, Viktoriya Coneva, Kelly R. Robbins, David G. Clark (2021) · PLANT PHYSIOLOGY
Isolasi dan Uji Aktivitas Antioksidan Senyawa Flavonoid dari Daun Miana (Coleus Scutelleroides Benth.)
Muhamad Ramdhan Podungge, Yuszda K. Salimi, Suleman Duengo (2017) · Jambura Journal of Educational Chemistry
Identification of a Virus Causing a Mosaic on Coleus
G. E. Holcomb (1991) · Plant Disease

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Coleus 5 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 131 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.