[2] Another common name is painted nettle,[3] reflecting its relationship to deadnettles (Lamium species), which are in the same family.

Coleus scutellarioides is an upright annual or short-lived perennial plant which can live for about three or four years.

[5] With modern cultivation and hybridisation, the species has become extremely variable with regards to its leaf colour, patterning and shape.

[5] The inflorescence is borne on the end of a stem and, like the leaves, is very variable in size; it may be up to 4 cm (1.6 in) long, with few or many flowers.

The bluish-purple petals are joined to form a typical two-lipped labiate flower, 8–10 mm (0.3–0.4 in) long.

Red, purple, pink, and orange colors are due to anthocyanins – water-soluble, flavonoid biosynthetic pigments, found in the foliage in addition to chlorophyll.

Anthocyanins are created inside the cell and facilitate photosynthesis in leaves that are exposed to very intense or prolonged sunlight by providing protection from damage caused by ultraviolet light.

Some coleus cultivars over-produce anthocyanins and under-produce chlorophyll to the extent that optimal growth is prevented.

Scutellaria is a genus also in the Lamiaceae; its name is derived from the Latin scutella, meaning a small dish or bowl.

[10] A summary cladogram for the subtribe Plectranthinae, based on the 2018 study, was published in 2019, along with names in Coleus for all the species recognized in that genus.

Coleus (294 spp., including Coleus scutellarioides) Coleus scutellarioides is native from southeast Asia through to Australia (the Bismarck Archipelago, Borneo, Cambodia, Southeast China, Java, Laos, the Lesser Sunda Islands, Peninsular Malaysia, Maluku, Myanmar, Nansei-shoto, New Guinea, Northern Territory, Philippines, Queensland, the Solomon Islands, Sulawesi, Sumatra, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam, and Western Australia).

A wider variety was available by 1877, when the American William Bull offered seeds at 43 US cents each.

However, by selecting for seed production, early flowering was inadvertently favored, and leaf color also declined in intensity.

More recently, vegetative propagation has enabled cultivars with novel leaf colors and shapes to be offered for sale.

[13] The leaves of cultivars typically show sharp contrasts between their colors; particular leaves may be several shades of green, pink, yellow, "black" (a very dark purple), maroon, cream, white, and red (somewhat resembling the unrelated Caladium).

The disease is spread by an insect called a thrips that carries the virus from an infected plant to an uninfected one.