Kauaʻi record · kba_plant_coleus_australis
Spurflower
Coleus australis
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About Spurflower
A spreading to partly erect, semi-succulent subshrub with hairy branches and opposite fleshy, ovate-to-rounded leaves bearing scalloped or toothed margins and orange glands. Branched flowering shoots carry small pale mauve-to-white flowers with blue-violet markings on the lateral lobes and downward-curving tubes. Enlarged fruiting calyces contain tiny glossy dark-brown-to-black nutlets. This native shrub is a component of Hawaiian vegetation. Monitoring mature plants, new recruits and occupied cover can assess persistence and replacement. The reviewed accounts do not establish a measured Kauaʻi population trend or quantify an ecosystem effect.
Kauaʻi evidence
Generated media is not occurrence evidence. Proposed monitoring endpoints are not reported observations, measured effects or causal findings.
Names and classification
- Scientific name
- Coleus australis
- Common names
- spurflower
- Hawaiian names
- ʻalaʻala wai nui · ʻalaʻala wai nui pua kī · ʻalaʻala wai nui wahine
- Other names
- Coleus australis · spurflower · ʻalaʻala wai nui · ʻalaʻala wai nui pua kī · ʻalaʻala wai nui wahine
- Record type
- Species
Kauaʻi occurrence and status
- Kauaʻi occurrence
- Recorded on Kauaʻi
- Origin
- Indigenous
- Conservation status
- Not yet assessed
- Evidence date
- 2026-10-07
- Evidence limits
- Island-level public occurrence only. Use the reviewed Coleus australis concept, historically Plectranthus parviflorus. Do not add the strongly variegated ornamental foliage of other Coleus species.
Habitat and ecology
- Habitats
- Not yet assessed
- Food and resource needs
- Not yet assessed
- Reproduction
- Not yet assessed
- Shelter
- Not yet assessed
- Growth form
- Shrub or subshrub; subshrub or shrub
Threats and conservation
- Monitoring
- Occupied area and vegetation cover; Mature plants and new recruits; Reproductive plants and fruiting frequency. Proposed monitoring endpoints are not reported observations, measured effects or causal findings.
- Data gaps
- Current island extent and population trend · Measured local ecological effects
Process and seasonal context
- Seasonal timing
- Not yet assessed
- Seasonal description
- A spreading to partly erect, semi-succulent subshrub with hairy branches and opposite fleshy, ovate-to-rounded leaves bearing scalloped or toothed margins and orange glands. Branched flowering shoots carry small pale mauve-to-white flowers with blue-violet markings on the lateral lobes and downward-curving tubes. Enlarged fruiting calyces contain tiny glossy dark-brown-to-black nutlets. This native shrub is a component of Hawaiian vegetation. Monitoring mature plants, new recruits and occupied cover can assess persistence and replacement. The reviewed accounts do not establish a measured Kauaʻi population trend or quantify an ecosystem effect.