Lantana, Lantana camara (in the verbena family, Verbenaceae) is a common ornamental and an easy plant to recognize. It is a tropical American shrub, native to Central and South America. In wild plants, the open flowers in the center of the group are yellow while the older flowers around them are orange. But there were enough natural color variants and related species with flowers of other colors that to grow in your garden you can find lantana with flowers ranging from white and lavender to pink, yellow orange and deep red. (link)
The two-color pattern in lantana, central flowers yellow, peripheral flowers orange is found throughout wild lantana plants. The lighter-colored flowers in the center are the newly-opened ones, with nectar for pollinators. The darker-colored ones are older, usually having been pollinated. The lighter color presumably directs pollinators to those flowers. The inflorescence (cluster of flowers) makes a bigger, more noticeable display than just the new flowers by themselves would. However, many pollinators are wary animals that move quickly from inflorescence to inflorescence to avoid their predators. A signal that directs them to the nectar-rich unpollinated flowers benefits both pollinator and plant. (More on that link, see also Weiss in references)
The flowers are lovely, attractive to people, bees, butterflies and hummingbirds.
Distribution around the world is not actually a plus: lantana appears on even short lists of the worst invasive species in the world. The whole plant often contains toxins, triterpenoids, that destroy the liver, so lantana is an undesirable range and pasture plant. Because it is a shrub, when left unchecked it forms thickets that reduce available forage, crowd out native plants and harbor pest insects. Only the unripe berries are reported to be dangerous to humans although the foliage causes dermatitis in some people.
A key to lantana's successful spread is the shiny blue-black fruits. They are attractive and safe for birds, so birds easily spread the seeds.
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| Lantana camara with seeds |
--in a rogue's gallery kind of way--the 2017 Kew Gardens State of the World's Plants finds there are 6075 plants documented as invasive (link)
Lantana is tropical, so it does not survive a hard frost. It is killed in the winter in the northern North America but it is currently invasive across the southern edge of the United States (Invasive species map). Since across the world it is serious pest, we probably need to consider it a threat to U.S. ecosystems, especially if it evolves frost-tolerance or if frosts become less frequent. Garden websites in the U.S. extoll its virtues without a mention of its potential as a weed (GardeningKnowHow, BetterHomesandGardens, SouthernLiving). Some lantana varieties are largely sterile. Without the fruits, it should not spread nearly as fast. I've loved lantana for 50 years--the flowers are so pretty!--though I never tried growing it. Reportedly it can get 4' tall in a growing season. To control this attractive plant, we would be wise to plant the varieties without fruit, not the ones that mature seeds. (Florida sterile varieties link)
The name Lantana camara was created by Linnaeus, but beyond that I cannot confirm the explanation of either word. There is a Viburnum lantana which Linnaeus thought had a similar flower and inflorescence (flower cluster) shape. Some sources say that lantana was a late Roman name for viburnum, while others imply that he picked up the species epithet from Viburnum lantana for this tropical American plant. The species epithet "camara" was either derived from Greek, meaning "arched" or from the indigenous American name for the plant, depending on who you read. I do not have an authoritative source--presumably Linnaeus explained it, in Latin, when he published the name--but my synthesis from the things I read (list at end) is that Linneaues combined lantana, a name for viburnum in Latin with camara the native American name of the plant. If I conclude that, it means that in naming the wayfaring tree Viburnum lantana Linneaus called it"viburnum viburnum," which seems weird, but Linneaus liked that kind of word game (see my blog post on daphne (link)).
In North America the common name for Lantana camara is lantana in English, but elsewhere in the English-speaking world it is called yellow sage or red sage (and other more regional names). If you know it by those names, be aware it is not related to either the culinary sages (genus Salvia, mint family Lamiaceae), or the sagebrushes of North America (genus Artemisia, sunflower family, Asteraceae). Apparently the odor of lantana reminded settlers of culinary sage.
Lantana is a beautiful, easily-grown plant. It likes hot temperatures and plenty of water. I don't think it would do well for even a summer in my dry Colorado yard, but after reading about it for this post, I think I'll try (sterile!) lantana plants in pots on the patio next year.
Comments and corrections welcome.
References
Lots of neat stuff:
Morton, J. F. 1994. Lantana or red sage (Lantana camara L. [Verbenaceae]), notorious weed and popular garden flower: some cases of poisoning in Florida. Economic Botany 48 (3): 259-270.
Color change:
Weiss, M. R. 1995. Floral color change: A widespread functional convergence. American Journal of Botany, 82 (2 ): 167-185
As a Medicinal Herb
Duke, J. A. and R. Vasquez. 1994. Amazonian Ethonobotantical Dictionary. CRC Press, Boca Raton, Florida.
Morton, J. F. 1994 (above)
Zuchowski, W. 2007. Tropical Plants of Costa Rica. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, New York.
On the name Lantana camara
Coombs, A. J. 1985. Dictionary of Plant Names. Timber Press, Portland, OR.
Fernald, M. L. 1970. Gray's Manual of Botany. corrected 8th edition. D. Van Nostrand Company, New York.
Hyam, R. and R. Parkhurst. 1995. Plants and Their Names, a Concise Dictionary. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
"Lantana" Missouri Plant Finder link
"Lantana" Wikipedia link
Stearns, W. T. 1996. Stearn's Dictionary of Plant Names for Gardeners. Sterling Publishing Company, New York.
See also links in text above
The name Lantana camara was created by Linnaeus, but beyond that I cannot confirm the explanation of either word. There is a Viburnum lantana which Linnaeus thought had a similar flower and inflorescence (flower cluster) shape. Some sources say that lantana was a late Roman name for viburnum, while others imply that he picked up the species epithet from Viburnum lantana for this tropical American plant. The species epithet "camara" was either derived from Greek, meaning "arched" or from the indigenous American name for the plant, depending on who you read. I do not have an authoritative source--presumably Linnaeus explained it, in Latin, when he published the name--but my synthesis from the things I read (list at end) is that Linneaues combined lantana, a name for viburnum in Latin with camara the native American name of the plant. If I conclude that, it means that in naming the wayfaring tree Viburnum lantana Linneaus called it"viburnum viburnum," which seems weird, but Linneaus liked that kind of word game (see my blog post on daphne (link)).
In North America the common name for Lantana camara is lantana in English, but elsewhere in the English-speaking world it is called yellow sage or red sage (and other more regional names). If you know it by those names, be aware it is not related to either the culinary sages (genus Salvia, mint family Lamiaceae), or the sagebrushes of North America (genus Artemisia, sunflower family, Asteraceae). Apparently the odor of lantana reminded settlers of culinary sage.
Lantana has been used as a folk medicine in the Americas for millennia. Mainly, people made a decoction from the leaves to treat various respiratory complaints and to reduce fever. Today it is widely used as a herbal medicine in the Old World as well. (Some lists of uses link, link).
Lantana is a beautiful, easily-grown plant. It likes hot temperatures and plenty of water. I don't think it would do well for even a summer in my dry Colorado yard, but after reading about it for this post, I think I'll try (sterile!) lantana plants in pots on the patio next year.
Comments and corrections welcome.
References
Lots of neat stuff:
Morton, J. F. 1994. Lantana or red sage (Lantana camara L. [Verbenaceae]), notorious weed and popular garden flower: some cases of poisoning in Florida. Economic Botany 48 (3): 259-270.
Color change:
Weiss, M. R. 1995. Floral color change: A widespread functional convergence. American Journal of Botany, 82 (2 ): 167-185
As a Medicinal Herb
Duke, J. A. and R. Vasquez. 1994. Amazonian Ethonobotantical Dictionary. CRC Press, Boca Raton, Florida.
Morton, J. F. 1994 (above)
Zuchowski, W. 2007. Tropical Plants of Costa Rica. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, New York.
Coombs, A. J. 1985. Dictionary of Plant Names. Timber Press, Portland, OR.
Fernald, M. L. 1970. Gray's Manual of Botany. corrected 8th edition. D. Van Nostrand Company, New York.
Hyam, R. and R. Parkhurst. 1995. Plants and Their Names, a Concise Dictionary. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
"Lantana" Missouri Plant Finder link
"Lantana" Wikipedia link
Stearns, W. T. 1996. Stearn's Dictionary of Plant Names for Gardeners. Sterling Publishing Company, New York.
See also links in text above
Kathy Keeler, A Wandering Botanist
More at awanderingbotanist.com
This is such useful information. Thanks for publishing.
ReplyDeleteI love this. I will be re-reading later tonight
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