How Dare Plants Vary!

I suspect we as humans want all plants and animals of a particular kind to always look the way we think they should. After learning to recognize a plant, it seems a cruel joke on the part of the plant to vary its looks and try to fool us.

People vary greatly as we know, so other animals and plants can too. One of my favorite plants is called Cuban Oregano. It’s actually native to parts of Africa; its foliage smells intensely of oregano and is edible.

I love it for these reasons: it’s tough to kill but doesn’t take over. It’s very attractive. It smells great. Oh and it’s botanical name sounds like a Harry Potter spell: Plectranthus amboinicus ‘variegatus.’ Formerly considered a Coleus, it’s quite a bit tougher than that, with fleshy, not papery, leaves.

Plain old Plectranthus amboinicus is mostly solid light green, very pretty, but the variegated variety is truly beautiful with cream-fringed light and pale green leaves. However, a small part of my plant has appeared without the cream-white margin, with a couple leaves showing only a portion of the white edging, below at right:

Variety within variety! I am grateful for it.