Plant of the Week 12/15/2003: Lantana X hybrida

Plant of the Week 12/15/2003

Lantana Linnaeus

Photographed by: Chelsie Vandaveer
Credits: Photographed at the USF Botanical Garden
Other Information: Olympus C-4000 zoom

There are about 150 species of Lantana. Most are native to the tropical and subtropical Americas with four species native to Africa. One species native to South America, Lantana camara Linnaeus, has been introduced horticulturally throughout much of the world; it is planted to attract butterflies to the garden. Where the climate is right, it escapes and becomes a nuisance.

Lantana camara (aka Lantana horrida HBK) is a highly variable species with flower color ranging from yellow to orange and fading to pink or red. Named varieties are selected cultivars. Each flower on the inflorescence gives rise to a fleshy drupe--the drupes together resemble a blackberry when ripe. Birds feast on the drupes; their droppings spread the plants.

One of the stranger sights in Florida is a huge field with Lantana evenly spaced in neat rows. Lantana takes over abandoned citrus groves; birds roost in the trees and when the untended citrus die out, huge Lantana bushes are left in their places. This 'wild type' has sharp prickles, felty leaves which cause itching, and the bruised leaves stink; it is easy to see why the plant was named "horrida" in the early 1800s by Humboldt, Bonpland, and Kunth.

According to the Florida Exotic Pest Plant Council, the Lantana camara escapees in Florida are a vigorous tetraploid variety. The plants also produce an allelopathic chemical which stunts the growth of other vegetation nearby. Few plants grow within its root zone. ("Lantana camara", FLEPPC)

Lantana camara has also become a pest in Africa. According to Karsten Legère of the Department of Oriental and African Languages, Göteborg University, it is called Mzunguzungu in Swahili. It would be interesting to know how this name translates, but having had many close encounters of the wrong kind with Lantana, it is difficult to imagine the Swahili name is anything close to flattering. ("Essays on African and Asian Languages", Göteborg Working Papers, Vol. 1, No. 3, 2003)

The photographed specimen is Lantana X hybrida, one of the newer hybrids of L. camara. These new hybrids bloom continuously, do not produce viable seed, have few if any prickles, stay small and mounding, and still attract many butterflies in search of nectar.