n. 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. [New Latin Coleus, genus name, from Greek koleos, sheath (from the way the filaments of its stamens are joined in a tube); see kel-1 in the Appendix of Indo-European roots.] |
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