My favorite plant this week: Pseuderanthemum 'Texas Tri-star'

My favorite plant this week is a relatively demure variegated plant I've featured in a number of Foliage Follow-up posts, including the most recent one.  It's saddled with a convoluted name that can be both difficult to spell and remember: Pseuderanthemum 'Texas Tri-star.'  There's minimal information available about it on-line so most of what I know about this plant comes from personal experience, although I did find a brief mention of the genus in an old edition of "The Wise Garden Encyclopedia," which describes it simply as a "genus of shrubby tropical plants belonging to the Acanthaceae (Acanthus) Family."

Pseuderanthemum 'Texas Tri-star' situated below Calliandra haematocephala

New growth is green with irregular cream-colored variegation.  As the leaves age, they turn a reddish burgundy with pink variegation.  The narrow leaves grow to between 2 and 3 inches (7.6 cm) in length.  Left to their own devices, mine have grown into narrow plants about 2 feet (61 cm) tall, taking on a vase-like shape and becoming bare at the base.  My most recent acquisition, found in a 1-gallon pot and mislabeled as Strobilanthes 'Purpurea,' is shorter and wider, about 1 foot (31 cm) tall and wide, which suggests that pinching and pruning would be useful in creating a denser plant.  Still, my older, unpruned plants have knitted in well with the surrounding foliage.

P. 'Texas Tri-star' poking up through the leaves of Arthropodium cirratum

This P. Texas Tri-star' is mingling with Plectranthus ciliatus

The plants I've shown here all grow in a bed that receives morning sun and afternoon shade.  The plants receive regular water on a drip irrigation system.  I've tried P. 'Texas Tri-star' in beds getting morning shade and afternoon sun but they were stressed and didn't hold up well in the summer heat even when they received extra water.  Those that survived were moved to the more hospitable bed outside our living room.

The plants remain evergreen in my USDA zone 10b garden.  They didn't show any sign of die-back during our cooler months but then our winter temperatures haven't dipped below 35F (1.67C) during the 3 years we've lived here.  The plants recently surprised me by producing a few lavender-pink flowers, which may be a response to the bout of humid air we've recently experienced.

The plant isn't particularly easy to find.  They pop up in 4-inch pots here occasionally.  In researching the plant on-line, I discovered that it has some interesting relatives, including a dark-leaved variety called 'Black Varnish,' which I'm now on a search to find locally.

Pseuderanthemum 'Texas Tri-star' is my contribution to Loree's favorite plant meme at danger garden.  Visit her blog to see her current favorite and to find links to other gardeners' selections.