Plectranthus fruticosus flowers

These Plectranthus fruticosus flowers of the ‘James’ form are pinkish purple on the buds, sepals, flower stalks, raceme stalk and scattered spots upon the corolla. Much of the corolla is pale pink or nearly white.

The flowers grow in branched, terminal panicles that may become up to 25 cm long. They are positioned in spaced whorls along the racemes. The sharply flexed corolla tube ends in two large lobed lips.

The four stamens are long, exserted and curving down; the anthers at their tips small and dark. The style is straight and long, in the face of approaching pollinators and away from the pollen of its own flower.

There is a ‘Liana’ form of the plant bearing blue-mauve flowers. The development of spectacular flowering cultivars has been particularly rewarding in the case of P. fruticosus (www.plantzafrica.com).