Coleus (/ˈkoʊliəs/, KOH-lee-əs) is a genus of annual or perennial herbs or shrubs, sometimes succulent, sometimes with a fleshy or tuberous rootstock, found in the Afro-Eurasia tropics and subtropics.

The most recent taxonomic treatment of the genus resurrected Coleus, and 212 names were changed from combinations in Plectranthus, Pycnostachys and Anisochilus.

Coleus blumei, Plectranthus scutellarioides), which is popular as a garden plant for its brightly colored foliage.

Using morphological characters as a guide, it was distinguished from Plectranthus (first described by Charles L'Héritier in 1788) by having its four stamens fused together rather than free to the base.

In 1962, J.K. Morton noted that fused stamens were more widespread than previously thought, and accordingly merged Coleus into Plectranthus, while maintaining Solenostemon and some other genera as distinct.

[2] A preliminary study of the tribe Ocimeae in 2004 showed that the subtribe Plectranthinae was monophyletic, with two main clades: one containing the type species of Coleus and including Solenostemon, the other containing the type species of Plectranthus along with some other genera, so that Plectranthus when broadly defined was not monophyletic.