Can anybody help me identifying a tropical plant ?

Last year, a friend brought me a tiny cutting of a plant she found in Brazil.
It looked rather withered at its arrival. But I gave it a chance anyway and to my amazement it recovered quickly and started growing vigorously, even if it had to deal with the darkest period of a European winter, normally a very unfavourable period to make a plant growing from a cutting. In ten months time it grew out of its pot 3 times. By now it has reached about 1.20m. The hairy leaves feel thick ,velvety and the undersides show pronounced veins, they stand opposite.
It didn't bloom yet, i don't know what to expect.

Whatever it is?? It is looking good....I like how the leaves are growing on this puppy...lol...

Intriquing....I look forward to an identification.

Erick

Thank you for your respons Moodene and Erick.
Here some more information: it has a strong quadrangular stem, the leaves are implanted opposite and make new shoots in the inter nodes. Originaly it has tendency to grow bush-like, but I trained it to grow with one single stem, in order to save place, as I have so many babies to take care of and lack of space.
I send another picture of the underside of the leave which is grayish green. Hope that might help to identify it.

Any chance your friend who gave you the cutting might remember something about what the flowers looked like? Or some more info on size/shape/habit of the original plant?

I think I got it, when you showed the backs of the leaves-they looked so familiar.....I think its "false pikake"
Clerodendrum chinense.

I saw it alot in the valley that I lived in on Maui. It grew like a weed. The leaves smell when you crupled them up. Its not an attractive smell-to me. I think the smell of the leave will help you decide if this is it.
http://maui-mike.smugmug.com/gallery/144743/7/65056134

http://toptropicals.com/cgi-bin/garden_catalog/cat.cgi?uid=Clerodendrum_philippinum

ecrane 3

My friend tells me she found it growing on a mountain range of the Atlantic Ocean in the state of Minas Gerais.

My first thought was a clerodendron chinense also but I notice Bonitin's leaves are scalloped on the edge and the clerodendrons pictured have smooth edges.

ecrane 3

I also opened the subject in the identification forum and discovered that 'begoniacrazzii' has exactly the same plant but so far there is no certainty about its name!
My friend unfortunately doesn't has a very good memory for plant properties. She likes plants but is not such a 'plant-monster' as she calls me jokingly.
Anyhow she remembers vaguely that it had beautiful blue flowers and is supposed to have healing properties (for the liver). I didn't mention that earlier because she's not sure if she took the cutting from the right plant, as she was in a hurry to leave.

Looks like a relative of Plectranthus....are the leaves aromatic?? a catnip type smell?

Eclipse

The leaves have a faint smell when rubbed, but not a very pleasing one. I could describe it as the smell of old dust, could also be catnip type as you mention but then very diluted, it's so difficult to describe!

more than likely a plectranthus then. square stems?

It looks like a Paliavana species to me. I got some seeds of P. tenuiflora from Brazil (where they're native), but mine seems to dislike the heat here, and hasn't bloomed yet. You can find a picture of it in habitat here: http://mpeixoto.sites.uol.com.br/gesneriads/paliavan/tenuiflora.html

Hope this helps you!

The undersides of the leaves don't match the paliavana species,they are more hairy and have sunken areas like plectranthus species. But who knows..

Indigoez

I don't think my plant belongs to the paliavana species, as the leaves of mine are more rounded and hairy. Also the veins on the underside are very pronounced (like Eclipse mentions). Thanks anyway.
By now, I've also been studying the plectranthus species.
I found some which are very similar like the plectranthus argentatus, but then with this specie it is mentioned that the leaves are only about 10cm large, while the leaves of mine are reaching well over 20cm.
Then the Plectranthus graveolens also has strong likenesses, but the leaves of mine are clearly bigger and more rounded on the top.
Untill now the plant does'nt make any signs to start blooming.
I don't put him in the full sun, because I discovered he doesn't like it, and likes quite a lot of water which is somewhat unusual for hairy plants.

Well, whatever it is good luck:-)