Coleus amboinicus, synonymPlectranthus amboinicus, is a semi-succulent perennial plant in the family Lamiaceae with a pungent oregano-like flavor and odor. The origin of Coleus amboinicus is unknown, but it may be native to Africa, and possibly India. Coleus amboinicus is widely cultivated and naturalized elsewhere in the tropics where it is used as a spice and ornamental plant. Common names in English include Indian borage, country borage, Cuban oregano, French thyme, Indian mint, Mexican mint, soup mint, Spanish thyme. The species epithet, amboinicus refers to Ambon Island, in Indonesia, where it was apparently encountered and described by João de Loureiro. Ambon is part of the Maluku Islands of Indonesia.
Description
A member of the mint family Lamiaceae, Coleus amboinicus grows up to tall. The stem is fleshy, about, either with long rigid hairs or densely covered with soft, short and erect hairs. Old stems are smooth. Leaves are by, fleshy, undivided, broad, egg/oval-shaped with a tapering tip. The margins are coarsely crenate to dentate-crenate except in the base. They are thickly studded with hairs, with the lower surface possessing the most numerous glandular hairs, giving a frosted appearance. The petiole is. Flowers are on a short stem, pale purplish, in dense 10-20 flowered dense whorls, at distant intervals, in a long slender spike-like raceme. Rachis, fleshy and pubescent. The bracts are broadly ovate, long, acute. The calyx is campanulate, long, hirsute and glandular, subequally 5-toothed, upper tooth broadly ovate-oblong, obtuse, abruptly acute, lateral and lower teeth acute. Corolla blue, curved and declinate, long, tube long. Trumpet-like widened; limb 2-lipped, upper lip short, erect, puberulent, lower lip long, concave. Filaments are fused below into a tube around the style. The seeds are smooth, pale-brown, roundish flattened, c.. The aroma of the leaves can be described as a pungent combination of the aromas of oregano, thyme, and turpentine. The taste of the leaves is described as being similar to the one of oregano, but with a sharp mint-like flavor.
Distribution and habitat
Coleus amboinicus is native to Southern and Eastern Africa, from South Africa and Swaziland to Angola and Mozambique and north to Kenya and Tanzania, where it grows in woodland or coastal bush, on rocky slopes and loamy or sandy flats at low elevations. From Southern Africa it would have been carried by Arabs and other traders to Arabia, India and Southeast Asia along the Indian Oceanmaritime trade routes. The plant also currently grows in mainland India. The plant was later brought to Europe, and then from Spain to the Americas, hence the name Spanish thyme.
The leaves are strongly flavoured and used for stuffings of meat and poultry, beef, lamb and game. The herb is used as a substitute for oregano to mask the strong odors and flavors of fish, mutton, and goat. Fresh leaves are used to scent laundry and hair. It is also grown as an ornamental plant.
Coleus amboinicus is a fast-growing plant commonly grown in gardens and indoors in pots. Propagation is by stem cuttings, but it can also be grown from seeds. In dry climates the herb grows easily in a well-drained, semi-shaded position. It is frost tender and grows well in subtropical and tropical locations, but will do well in cooler climates if grown in a pot and brought indoors, or moved to a warm, sheltered position in winter. In Hawaii and other humid tropical locations, the plant requires full sun.
