Lantana: Love It or Leave It?

One of the most popular nectar plants in the Flight Encounter and throughout the gardens is lantana. The tiny clustered flowers on lantana are great nectar producers, and it’s both easy to grow and drought-tolerant. It comes in a variety of colors and growth habits, and is widely available at nurseries throughout Florida and beyond.

Lantana is an easy-to-grow nectar plant that butterflies love. So what’s the problem? It’s this: Lantana camara, the most commonly-available species, is not only non-native to Florida; it’s invasive. It's listed as a Category I invasive exotic species by the Florida Exotic Pest Plant Council, meaning it's known to be "invading and disrupting native plant communities in Florida". (Click here to learn more about invasive species.) This species is native to the American tropics but has actually managed to spread nearly world-wide due to its popularity in the nursery trade. It's nearly impossible to eradicate in climates with minimal frost impacts (like Florida) - it thrives on fire and benefits from being cut back to the roots.

Florida does have some native Lantana species, including the pale yellow Pineland Lantana, Lantana depressa. And here’s where Lantana camara is causing problems: introduced lantana species have hybridized so extensively with the native species that some scientists theorize you can't really find pure L. depressa these days. The species shown below, which was being sold by a native plant nursery as L. depressa, is most likely actually a L. camara hybrid called 'Cream Carpet'.

Another Florida native lantana, Lantana involucrata, is also known as Button Sage. This lantana has a shrubby growth habit, with white flowers followed by purple berries, as shown to the right. This is available at some native plant nurseries, and is very easy to grow in almost any habitat. Here at MOSI Outside, we have a nice stand of it in the Historic Tree Grove near the Clara Barton Redbud.

One more non-native lantana you may come across commercially is Lantana montevidensis. This is often sold as “Trailing Lantana”, due to its growth habit, and generally has purple (shown below) or white flowers. When crushed, the leaves have a fairly unpleasant smell, unlike the sweeter citrus scent of crushed L. camara leaves. The good thing about L. montevidensis is that it is not considered invasive in Florida, so it’s a better choice in the butterfly garden.

With all these options, some good and some bad, what should a responsible Florida butterfly gardener do? Here are some suggestions:

• Familiarize yourself with lantana species by reviewing the guide found in the very informative article The Lantana Mess, by Roger L. Hammer.
• Many of the Lantana camara cultivars are so hybridized that they no longer produce viable seeds, and can be planted safely in a controlled environment. The "New Gold" lantana is considered by many to be just such a species, making it a better choice in Florida gardens.  It doesn't hurt to ask nursery staff if they happen to know if the lantana they offer is sterile.
• The trailing lantana species (L. montevidensis) are not on the invasive species list, so look for low-growing plants with white or purple flowers and leaves that smell fairly unpleasant when crushed.
• If you already have L. camara plants in your garden, help control the spread of this invasive species by removing the berries before they can be carried off by birds and small mammals.  Dispose of these seeds in your regular trash, as opposed to what you put out for yard waste collection - yard waste is often recycled and used as mulch, so putting the berries into this collection will only spread them further. (Bear in mind that the berries are very toxic when unripe, and should be kept away from children and pets.)