Well, I think that's lovely, I'm crazy about purple/bronze foilage for contrast. Like I said though, I don't want invasive plants, for obvious reasons. The one I have has a very unpleasant odor, like those big nasty green beatles. I was told it was a coleus, by the master gardener that was selling it at the exension service plant sale at MCC Crystal Lake, IL, many. Yes, it does reseed, but easy to stay on top of. I always pinch the centers out of my coleus, to keep it bushy and I don't like the flower spike. It is sparse some years and I have to rescue a few, I like to put it in my mixed pots. I rescue my baby butterfly weed, the same way. I also have the bronze lysimachia/yellow flowers, it just creeps, I haven't brought any here yet, but it would be a good alternative, if what I have is perilla. The "coleus" seedlings did hitch hike with some of my other plants.

Here is a picture of the flower. Seems similar to coleus.

Here is a link that might be useful:

Quite similar, but mine is more ruffley.

perilla will look like that on the lower leaves, but there is almost always more serration in mine. here is mine - for the record, one came up wild on the side yard, i let it grow because of the great dark foliage and no identification, and now ... i'm constantly pulling up volunteers, it reseeds/spreads more voraciously more than mint ;)

here is what a bazillion live samples look like in real life - and what a pot looks like after one year of having a single plant, even after being filigent to cut the flowers off immediately after petal drop and prior to the seed head turning into a rattlesnake tail. note the lower leaves - very similar to what esh posted.

That plant is strikingly beautiful!
(even if it's a weed)
Dora

Yes, looks nice ... in a POT.

Esh,
Thanks for clarifying.....I was wondering if it were grown "in a pot" if it could be enjoyed for the visual without the owner being subjected to the negative consequences of being a obnoxious weed.

Dora

Just be sure to cut off the flowers before they make seed. And you could do that outdoors too, but sometimes we aren't as vigilant about deadheading in that situation.

satellithead, yours looks more like my "coleus", does it smell bad? Does yours just reseed or is it a creeping perennial, like mint?

I have both of them, they are two different plants, definately different colors, leaf serration, shape, and smell but maybe both still be perillas. The one I got from the trade ( traded as basil-NOT planning to eat it) is herby sorta like faint mint, I potted with my basil and parsley. The other has a very unpleasant odor, but I love to use it in mixed pots for texture and contrast, it stands up to much neglect, drought, and hot late day sun, and gets a deep shiny blackish purple. It looks different w/more shade, of course. I do let maybe one or two go to seed, but sometimes have very few seedlings.

I think invasiveness always depends on first-your growing conditions, yard maintenance, and dilligence.
I gave some to susan, she does better with photos than I, maybe she can post some later, as they got a late start, coming from IL.

@gardenhag, It is absolutely Perilla, not Coleus. It smells great to me, and the leaves are more shiny than Coleus. Additionally, Perilla (aka "shiso") has a very unique flower as well, it looks like

@esh, agreed, but even in pots and deadheaded in a timely fashion Perilla can spread like wildfire.

@dora, it can be enjoyed, but know this: we have it on our 2nd story deck. since i started allowing it to grow in pots, every pot on the deck has at least one or two little plants in it by spring of the next year, and it has somehow migrated to areas a good 20' beyond the deck, and I pull a dozen or two from the beds on either side of the deck 15' below (it's all concrete below the deck, with a driveway behind the deck). I've even managed to find them popping up in the neighbors' yards. Never saw one in my life prior to 2006, and nobody else in the neighborhood has any.

FWIW, the seeds are the size and shape of a poppy seed, almost impossible to keep up with realistically. I harvested a few thousand of them the first year this thing grew, and recently handed off all of them to girlgroupgirl a few months back. I don't need them anymore - it's reseeding even with me cutting it down before flowering completes.

I almost forgot to mention - this stuff is edible, you'll see it as a garnish on plates with, like, sushi, for example. It smells of a wisp of orange cream with an herbal twist and is good if you do a quick chiffonade and toss it into a salad. But - personal opinion - the green tastes much better than the purple pictured above.

Before I got the identification, I thought it was Eupatorium rugosa 'Chocolate', which is also weedy and spreads easily - basically, 'Chocolate' is like ... the purplish-green version of Snakeroot, which is poisonous and NOT to be confused with "Indian Snakeroot", which has actual medicinal value.

Here is what Lorinda (organic gardenhag) gave me. It is really pretty and I think the scent is nice. It is more purple than it appears in the picture. It has grown like crazy since she gave it to me, it was tiny a couple of weeks ago.
My dilemma is what to do. I don't want something invasive. I wonder if it would grow as a houseplant?
Susan.

i think it would grow anywhere, honestly. but it is a perennial and it will die not long after flowering. i doubt you can keep it year-round.

just don't put it in the ground and you should be fine. what you show does look like perilla to me.

does that plant have a square stem? this is one of the qualities of perilla/shiso I've not encountered often on other plants

satellitehead, yes it definitely has a square stem.

sattelitehead- I have the chocolate eupatorium, I love it, how bad does it spread? Is cimicifuga/black cohosh/bugbane what you call snakeroot?
Susan, that's pretty funny that you think it smells nice. Maybe the oils are stronger under harsh growing conditions like the very aromatic herbs. It sounds like it's perilla then, with the square stem, I guess we should kill it, you first.

I found my purple globe basil (only 1) at Ingles in Cartersville last night. I am so excited, it is my favorite one.

i have never grown it, so i am not sure. i've only seen it grown potted, because it apparently will spread. any time people tell me, "vigorous spreader" that usually leaves me avoiding it. i've had one too many fights with trying to eradicate a bad invasive planting, i prefer not to go there anymore.

when i say snakeroot, i mean 'Ageratina altissima', which is what i most commonly see growing wild here or there, although there are others that have clusters looking more like an achillea or something.

"Chocolate eupatorium" is just the cultivated form of white snakeroot that has dark foliage. Eupatorium rugosum was the name then, Ageratina altissima is the current name.

I don't find chocolate eupatorium spreads much for me here. Mine has gotten smaller instead of larger over the years :(

Are you all referring to the Joe Pye weed? That's the chocolate eupatorium I mean.

ggg- I planted mine in half day(morning) sun, here. Expecting it to get tall, so I planted it in in the back of the border, love the chocolate leaves and white flowers.
Like I said, I think alot of it depends on your own growing conditions.

I decided to kill all of the the little perilla in question, both mine and the different ones from the trade.

Joe Pye Weed (Eutrochium maculatum) is something totally different. Now a totally different genus, totally different species. About as far distant in relation to basil and shiso/perilla

Compare Joe Pye Weed and Eupatorium rugosa "chocolate"....

Eupatorium rugosa "Chocolate":

{{gwi:820414}}

Joe Pye Weed:

If you examine a stalk of _Perilla frutescens_, which we've always called "purple yard coleus," you will find that it has square stems, thus making it a member of the mint family, _Laminaceae_. Like kudzu, the "purple yard coleus" is native to the Orient where it is used extensively in China, Korea, and Japan medicinally as well as in cookery. It has been grown for generations in Southern gardens, where it is much loved as an heirloom annual. A green-leafed form is also in cultivation. My mother used to add "purple yard coleus" to floral arrangements. It is particularly effective in combination with lavender "false snapdragons" (_Physostegia sp._). There is an excellent _Perilla_ article on Wikipedia. The plant was also mentioned on last Saturday's edition of "Victory Garden."

Well then, after I killed them all, I did love it too. What about the invasiveness of the one I brought from IL. it is different. Calling it coleus, hmmm? What channel is the victory garden on? I don't find the abundance of pbs garden shows I am used to.

The Japanese love perilla/shiso (so do I). You can usually find it at an asian market for ten or twenty cents PER LEAF. The green variety is most commonly eaten as a raw leaf, with sushi. Though my wife and I will use it in a cold noodle salad with green onions, daikon, carrot, udon noodles and ume vinegar or shoyu/lemon sauce dipping sauce. Mmmm!!!

The red variety is used mostly for pickling - most famously that's what gives pickled umeboshi plums their red color. Red shiso is also used in salad dressings. The shiso sprouts, especially the purple ones, are delicious and make for a striking garnish. Both types are delicious TEMPURA FRIED!

Have a bunch of purple right now... wondering if I can make some kind of pesto with this? Hmmmm....

Glad I found this discussion. Seeing it has culinary uses, but wondered about it after reading it is poisonous to cows and horses, if so, wonder what kind and if to cats and dogs?
I've been growing tons of Purple Perilla -mine look like Satellitehead's, pretty when young, turns more brown with age.
Gotten a few seeds over the last 3 years but now need to learn more and if it's poisonous, pulling them all out.

Appreciate your input.

Bea

We have it everywhere in our church garden and the neighboring cats do not eat it. Nobody really cares for it's flavor however it is delicious in vinegars, and they are beautiful. I've been using shiso to make herbal vinegar this summer. We have pulled out much of the perilla now in the church garden because it is going to seed. I like a little, but we have way too much right now!

i'm not aware of it being poisonous?

Poisonous to ruminants; not especially so to other species, so far as I'm aware.
I wrote a lengthy scientific explanation, but then thought better of it. Suffice it to say that compounds released from perilla in the cow's rumen are inhaled when the cows eructate(burp), and damage the cells that line the alveoli(air spaces) in the lungs, preventing normal O2-CO2 exchange. Causes an acute emphysema-like condition that frequently results in death.
I see perilla growing rampantly, especially in cool, relatively moist spots, like in the edge of the woods. Usually, cows don't eat it unless there's just not much else to consume - but sometimes they seem to acquire a taste for it - to their detriment.

If you want Perilla forever, plant it and get ready for yearly seeding and Perilla bounty.