Customize Consent Preferences

We use cookies to help you navigate efficiently and perform certain functions. You will find detailed information about all cookies under each consent category below.

The cookies that are categorized as "Necessary" are stored on your browser as they are essential for enabling the basic functionalities of the site. ... 

Always Active

Necessary cookies are required to enable the basic features of this site, such as providing secure log-in or adjusting your consent preferences. These cookies do not store any personally identifiable data.

No cookies to display.

Functional cookies help perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collecting feedback, and other third-party features.

No cookies to display.

Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics such as the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.

No cookies to display.

Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.

No cookies to display.

Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with customized advertisements based on the pages you visited previously and to analyze the effectiveness of the ad campaigns.

No cookies to display.

Skip to content

Lantana camara (Verbenaceae)

Linnaeus gave the genus its name, Lantana, in 1738. In so doing, he borrowed from the Swiss naturalist Conrad Gesner (1516-1565) who thus characterized Viburnum in 1542 for its flexible branches: the word lantana derives from the Latin verb lento, with the meaning of to bend, to curb. The species name, camara (room), alludes to mites sheltering within the bunch of flowers stemming from a single point and known as the umbel.

The genus comprises now more than 150 species. Native to the American tropics, Central and South America, Lantana camara is a small perennial shrub that grows up to 2m (3-6ft) tall. Dark green leaves, up to 10 cm (4 in) long, are broadly ovate, opposite, and simple, rough wrinkled on top and emit a strong odor when bruised. Small tubular shaped 5-lobed flowers, are arranged in dense hemispherical clusters in terminal areas stems. Flowers come in many different colours, including red, yellow, white, pink and orange, often mixed in the same cluster. The fruit is a berry-like drupe. The plant is designed for wide-spread dissemination, with fruit up to 12,000 produced by a single plant, prior to their being eaten by birds and the seeds being released over large distances.

Mankind also assisted the spread of this plant. The first samples were brought to Europe from Brazil by Dutch explorers and merchants at the end of the seventeenth century. Subsequently, they were introduced to other parts of the world, often as cultivars. For instance, it was introduced in 1863 in New Caledonia, in order to form ornemental hedges.
How could one resist the lure of these pretty flowers! Horticulturists thus sell many varieties of cultivars.

The story has its down sides though, the toxicity of this plant and its invasiveness. Toxicity? Of the green fruit to grazing animals, due to pentacyclic triterpenes. It causes photosensitivity and liver damage. To nearby plants: it excretes allelopathic chemicals, that inhibit germination and root elongation. Invasiveness? It tolerates a wide range of environmental conditions. Moreover, it prefers disturbed habitats. Accordingly, this highly opportunistic species takes advantage of the expansion of mankind at the expense of forests, in particular, with the increase of logging and of clearing through burning. In areas where it has been established for many years, such as East Africa, Australia and New Zealand, its range keeps increasing. In addition, it has invaded territories on which it was not present half-a-century ago, such as the Galapagos Islands , Saipan and the Solomon Islands.

Seductive in the past, it has become a threat.

Published inPlants