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Plectranthus verticillatus
Also called Gossip Spurflower, Swedish Ivy
Whorled plectranthus is a trailing, fleshy-leaved subshrub from southern Africa, grown mainly as a hanging houseplant or groundcover. It is undemanding and does best in bright, indirect light with evenly moist soil.
Plectranthus verticillatus (syn. Plectranthus nummularius), Swedish ivy, Swedish begonia or whorled plectranthus is a plant in the family Lamiaceae (Labiatae), genus Plectranthus native to southern Africa. Despite its common name, it is not close to the ivy family of the genus Hedera nor is it native to Sweden.
Plectranthus verticillatus is native to southern Africa where it occurs in the Cape Provinces, KwaZulu-Natal, Eswatini, the Northern Provinces and southern Mozambique. It is found naturalized in El Salvador, Honduras, the Leeward Islands, the Venezuela Antilles, the Windward Islands, Venezuela, Puerto Rico, Hawaii as well as south-east Queensland and coastal areas of New South Wales in Australia.
Plectranthus verticillatus is a robust plant doing well in indirect sunlight, mostly cultivated as hanging houseplant. In frost-free areas, it is also found as groundcover in gardens or sprouting down walls. It can tolerate milder frosts if it is grown under a canopy of trees and shrubs. Since it is a tender perennial, it is hardy to USDA zones 10-11. In cooler climates, it is grown as an indoor houseplant or as an annual.
Pincushion Spurflower · Speckled spur flower · Ecklon Spurflower · Forest Spurflower · Plectranthus hadiensis · Brazilian Coleus · Cliff Spurflower · Stoep Jacaranda · Dwarf Spurflower · Spurflowers
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Plectranthus verticillatus by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
