Coleus plant named ‘UF22-146-3’

‘UF22-146-3’ is a new Coleus plant, selected for having a combination of desirable traits that make it well-suited for use as an annual plant in the summer landscape. ‘UF22-146-3’ was selected for its consistent and novel bright reddish brown to dark red foliage color and for its consistent compact and mounding habit and vigorous growth rate in the greenhouse and landscape. ‘UF22-146-3’ has large, lance-shaped leaves that are twice as long as they are wide. ‘UF22-146-3’ maintains its foliage colors and leaf patterns in both sun and shade until the end of the garden season. ‘UF22-146-3’ has a highly branched and spreading form, growing wider than it does tall.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF FEDERAL RESEARCH SUPPORT

BACKGROUND OF THE NEW CULTIVAR

The invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar ofColeusplant named ‘UF22-146-3’. The new cultivar ‘UF22-146-3’ originated from an open pollination conducted in May-November 2021 in Citra, Florida, between the femaleColeusplant ‘UF21-66-2’ (unpatented) and an unknown maleColeusplant. A single seedling was chosen in May 2022 for further asexual propagation in Gainesville, Florida.

The new cultivar ‘UF22-146-3’ has been reproduced asexually for over 11 months through vegetative meristem tip cuttings and has been found to retain its distinctive characteristics through successive asexual propagations. ‘UF22-146-3’ was first propagated asexually by vegetative meristem tip cuttings in May 2022 in Gainesville, Florida, and has remained true-to-type since that time.

Plant Breeder's Rights for the new cultivar ‘UF22-146-3’ have not been applied for, and ‘UF22-146-3’ has not been made publicly available more than one year prior to the filing date of this application.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The new cultivar ‘UF22-146-3’ has not been observed under all possible environmental conditions. The phenotype of the new cultivar may vary with variations in environment and cultural practices such as temperature, light intensity, fertilization, irrigation, and application of plant growth regulators without any change in genotype.

The new cultivar ‘UF22-146-3’ was selected for its novel reddish brown to dark red foliage color and for its consistent, compact, and mounding habit in greenhouse-grown pots and landscape planting. ‘UF22-146-3’ is exceptional because it'maintains this novel color in both sun and shade. These characteristics allow the plant to have utility in mass outdoor ground plantings, or in containers as a specimen in small gardens.

The following are the most outstanding and distinguishing characteristics of ‘UF22-146-3’ when grown under normal horticultural practices in Gainesville, Florida: (1) ‘UF22-146-3’ has the combination of compact and mounding habit and spreading growth form, excellent heat tolerance, and consistent bright reddish brown to dark red foliage color that is significantly different than otherColeusplants; (2) it has superior stability in foliage color in both sun and shade conditions, and it has a vigorous growth habit with excellent lateral branching, making it suitable for propagators and producers; and (3) ‘UF22-146-3’ has been observed to have long-season performance in landscape trials in Gainesville, Florida.

When compared to the female parent ‘UF21-66-2’, ‘UF22-146-3’ has large, lance-shaped leaves that are twice as long as they are wide, whereas ‘UF21-66-2’ has large leaves that are equally as long as they are wide. Additionally, ‘UF'22-146-3’ has novel bright reddish brown to dark red colored leaves with yellow green accents and purplish red areas around the veins, whereas ‘UF21-66-2’ has deep crimson colored leaves and chartreuse margins and crimson netted patterning. ‘UF22-146-3’ has a vigorous compact and mounding growth habit and a spreading form that is well-branched, whereas ‘UF21-66-2’ is less vigorous, and more upright in habit with less lateral branching and a less spreading form.

DETAILED BOTANICAL DESCRIPTION OF THE CULTIVAR

Foliage color was determined under full sun conditions in the middle of the day in a glass-covered greenhouse. Color references are to The R.H.S. Colour Chart of The Royal Horticultural Society of London (R.H.S.), 2007 5th Edition.Coleusleaves are rarely one solid color but encompass hues, shades and tints, and color patterns differ from one genotype to another due to varying levels of variegation. The following detailed description of ‘UF22-146-3’ was obtained using eleven-week-old plants grown from unrooted cuttings in September-December 2022 in a glass-covered greenhouse in Gainesville, Florida. The plants were propagated in mist for ten days after cuttings were stuck, pinched, then grown in one-gallon pots for approximately nine and a half additional weeks.

BOTANICAL DESCRIPTION

COMPARISON WITH KNOWN CULTIVARS

When compared to theColeuscultivar ‘UF15-97-9’ (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 31,425, commercial name Salsa Roja), the newColeuscultivar ‘UF22-146-3’ has a leaf coloration that is bright reddish brown to dark red with areas around the veins colored purplish red on the upper surface of mature leaves and yellow green accents, whereas UF15-97-9 has a leaf coloration that is more purplish dark red with no coloration around the veins on the upper surface of mature leaves.