Lantana aculeata L.

• Authority

  Britton, Nathaniel L. Flora Borinqueña.

• Family

  Verbenaceae

• Scientific Name

  Lantana aculeata L.

• Description

  Species Description - Much more formidably armed than Lantana Camara, its stout, flattened, curved or hooked prickles often 4 millimeters long, and the name Prickly Sage sometimes used for it, this shrub, with flowers at first yellow or orange, turning pink, or rose, is occasional on roadsides, along river-banks, and in waste grounds at lower elevations in Porto Rico, and planted in gardens; it appears here to be an introduced species and is here so regarded. The species is distributed westward through Santo Domingo and Haiti to Cuba, eastward in the Virgin Islands, and in some of the Lesser Antilles from Martinique southward; its place of origin is unknown. The plant has become plentifully naturalized in Hawaii. An account, of the genus Lantana may be found with our description of Lantana Camara. Lantana aculeata (hooked prickles) is sparingly hairy, from 1 to 2 meters high, or sometimes longer, and half-climbing, the 4-angled branches often copiously prickly. The ovate to lance-shaped, pointed leaves are from 5 to 8 centimeters long, finely, bluntly toothed, with narrowed bases, and stalks about 3 centimeters long, or shorter. The flowers are in slender-stalked, short clusters, with narrow, hairy bracts from 4 to 6 millimeters long, the calyx about 4 millimeters long, the corolla about 12 millimeters long, orange, turning pink, or rose, 6 to 8 millimeters broad. The fruit is bluish.

• Discussion

  Poley cimarron Pink Sage Vervain Family Lantana aculeata Linnaeus, Species Plantarum 627. 1753.