Flora of New Zealand Series

lantana

Aromatic shrub; stems upright to spreading, or almost scrambling to c. 2-(3) m high, usually with recurved prickles. Petioles to 2 cm long. Lamina 3-13 × 1.5-7 cm, ovate or oblong-ovate, crenate or crenate-serrate, densely hispidulous or scabrid above, the hairs usually dense but soft below; glandular scales minute; base cuneate to subcordate; apex acute to short-acuminate. Infls corymbose; fls fragrant. Peduncles 3-10 cm long, moderately slender; bracts 1/4-3/4 length of corolla tube, linear-lanceolate, densely hairy but eglandular. Calyx 1.5-2.5 mm long, ciliate. Corolla densely puberulent outside; tube c. 1 cm long, narrow-cylindric; limb 6-10-(14) mm diam., when fresh, rather flat except for ± recurved lobes, usually initially cream or pale yellow, changing to pink to rose, rarely deep yellow or orange. Drupe c. 5 mm diam., globular, black or blue-black.

N.: N. Auckland (mainly N. of Hokianga Harbour), Auckland (Rangitoto Id), Bay of Plenty (as far E. as Opotiki District).

Tropical America 1912

Roadsides and waste places in and around settlements; cultivation escape often spread by birds.

FL Jan-Dec.

Lantana is one of the most notorious weeds on many islands beyond N.Z., e.g., Norfolk Id, Fiji, Tonga, Cook Is, but seems unlikely to become very troublesome in N.Z. because of the cooler climate here. As in these subtropical and tropical areas most of the wild plants in N.Z. belong to var. aculeata (L.) Mold. Such plants typically are prickly and have corollas changing from cream or yellow to pink, purplish pink or rose, so that the corymbs are usually bicoloured for most of the flowering period. The sp. is known to be sometimes toxic to stock elsewhere, but the usual form in N.Z. seems to correspond to cv. 'Common Pink', a non-toxic plant commonly naturalised in Queensland and N.S.W. [Smith, L. S. and D. A., Queensland Botany Bull. 1: 1-26 (1982)]. Various cvs of L. camara, differing in stature and fl. colour, are grown in N.Z.; most plants now grown have uniformly yellow, orange or white fls, whilst others have ± purple or magenta corollas as they age. With the exception of an occasional plant with yellow and orange fls, none of these other forms are wild.

Fig. 121. Infls of Verbenaceae. A Lantana camara; B L. montevidensis; C Phyla nodiflora. © All rights reserved. [Image: 4X41]