Talk:Solenostemon

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I think it would be worth adding the new discovery that Coleus plant juice may encourage human skin to produce melanin. An experiment has been done, apparently in Ottawa, on mice. Mice who regularly had a lotion containing Coleus plant juice produced melanin and were significantly less susceptible to cancer. Check out the article at

Looks promising, but don't know how encyclopedic.


 * See here: Indian Coleus. The drug is Forskolin. It is being marketed as "Ubertan". There should be a link to Indian Coleus in the article.--88.73.2.69 (talk) 16:26, 2 August 2011 (UTC)

Wrong plant in upper right photo on Coleus page ~ The pink/purple/cream/green plant in the upper right photo is Perilla 'Magilla'. I know this for a fact since I grow both plants and Perilla is commonly mistaken for a Coleus cultivar. I don't have an account on Wikipedia to edit entries and don't want to start doing that (actually, I'd love to, but I know I'd get hooked and already have PLENTY of irons in the fire), or I'd have done it myself. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.105.191.14 (talk • contribs)


 * I took the photo at a botanical gardens, but I can't remember if they were labeled, so I probably misidentified them myself. I'm growing quite a few coleus at the moment, I should be able to take another photo of what are definitely coleus cultivars (my plants are immature, so I might need to wait a few weeks before they're suitable for an infobox photo). -- Pharaoh Hound  (talk)   (The Game)  15:10, 11 May 2007 (UTC)

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment
This article is or was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Chenniechen.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 09:46, 17 January 2022 (UTC)

Meristematic instability
There is no mention of the fact that Coleus blumei is notorious for showing instability at the growing points which is expressed in a number of ways. Normally the stem is four sided with pairs of leaves at each node, but it can change to SIX sided stems with triplets of leaves. There are also notable changes in pigmentation which occur in a similar manner, so that one may observe a new branch with notably different colouration. A plant which has a lot of red or pink, may start growing a plain yellow or green branch. This can be propogated to produce an entire plant. As an aside, if one wishes to grow these lovely plants for any length of time, don't let them flower. (They are actually quite insignificant flowers) The lower stems do become very woody after a while, and it is usually best to propagate them before discarding the parent at this point.82.6.1.85 (talk) 22:35, 15 July 2010 (UTC)Lance Tyrell

Psychoactivity, Reference?
How could something native to the old world be used by Mazatec Indians as a psychoactive? References Please? The reference link to Erowid gives a 404 error. I did find the reference on Erowid where I'm assuming the part on Mazatec Indians came from. It was from an alt group from 1994 where the poster gave no evidence of such a claim and mentioned nothing more than what is already on the wikipedia page. Here is the URL: http://www.erowid.org/plants/coleus/coleus_info1.shtml Jmcclare (talk) 22:45, 7 December 2010 (UTC)

Article topic matter
The article appears to focus primarily on S. scutellarioides and its hybrids rather than the genus Solenostemon itself -- note that S. scutellarioides does have its own page. Also note that this treatment is different to the treatment of other genera and species within Wikipedia. The title should also perhaps reflect the most correct name of Solenostemon, redirecting 'Coleus' to Solenostem scutellarioides, or syn genus Solenostemon, and explain that the name 'Coleus' is not valid botanically is still used particularly as a trade name. The status/relationship between Perilla, Plectranthus (formerly a synonym of the no longer valid genus Coleus), and Solenostemon should also be addressed. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 121.210.161.143 (talk) 04:01, 21 January 2012 (UTC)

Requested move

 * The following discussion is an archived discussion of the proposal. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. No further edits should be made to this section. 

The result of the proposal was moved. I'll leave the writing of the Coleus article to the plant people. --BDD (talk) 19:56, 4 November 2013 (UTC)

Coleus → Solenostemon – The content of the article is about the genus Solenostemon, one of the genera in which species in the formerly recognized genus Coleus are now placed. It's quite confusing to have the article basically include a disclaimer about how the title refers to a broader concept than what is addressed in the article itself. I'm not quite sure what to do with the Coleus title; it might be best to redirect it to Solenostemon scutellarioides (with hatnotes for other uses), as this ornamental species (and hybrids involving this species) is most likely to be the intended target of searches for Coleus. A stub article at Coleus describing the previously recognized genus and recent placement of the formerly included species might be another option. Plantdrew (talk) 05:24, 25 October 2013 (UTC) Plantdrew (talk) 05:24, 25 October 2013 (UTC)
 * Support sounds reasonable. Cas Liber (talk · contribs) 11:58, 25 October 2013 (UTC)
 * Comment 76 article pages, 7 of which are redirs (as of this morning of October 25th), have the word "Coleus" in them. This might be helpful in determining what to do with the "Coleus" page that would be left behind should the move go forward. I don't consider myself knowledgeable enough to support or not. Hamamelis (talk) 12:15, 25 October 2013 (UTC)
 * I think we can figure out most of them by the context. Cas Liber (talk · contribs) 20:34, 25 October 2013 (UTC)


 * Support. A stub that explains what happened would be good; those pages that list coleus as a food source of Lepidoptera need disambiguation work. Sminthopsis84 (talk) 18:55, 25 October 2013 (UTC)
 * Support move. A separate article will need to be created for Coleus following this. The treatment of the latter article will require some consideration given the historical breadth versus the current status of the genus versus coleus as a popular common name for some lairy plants.--Melburnian (talk) 11:07, 28 October 2013 (UTC)
 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the proposal. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.

As the move has been completed, a threw together a stub for Coleus, as was suggested in this discussion. The stub could certainly use some additional work if anybody is so inclined. Plantdrew (talk) 00:32, 5 November 2013 (UTC)