Lantana camara L.

• Authority

  Britton, Nathaniel L. Flora Borinqueña.

• Family

  Verbenaceae

• Scientific Name

  Lantana camara L.

• Description

  Species Description - Remarkably various in size and shape of leaves, in size of flowers, and in having prickles on the stem and branches, or being unarmed, this shrub, with clustered, orange-yellow flowers, which change to red, is common, or frequent in most parts of Porto Rico, ascending to at least 600 meters elevation, growing in both wet and dry regions, inhabiting hillsides, woods, and thickets. The feature of change in color of flowers exhibited by this plant and by other species of the genus is very interesting, caused, apparently, by chemical modification of the corolla as its development proceeds; both orange, and red flowers may be seen in the same clusters, the young ones orange, the old ones red; the name Red Sage is sometimes used for it. The species, made up of several races, is distributed nearly throughout the West Indies and continental tropical America, north to Bermuda, Florida, and Mississippi. It is possible that some of the forms here regarded as races, may better be classified as distinct species. In the West Indies the smaller-leaved plants mostly grow in dry districts at low elevations. Lantana (named by Linnaeus from fancied resemblance to Viburnum Lantana, the Wayfaring Tree of Europe) includes about 60 species of shrubs and herbs, natives of warm and tropical regions. They have opposite, or sometimes whorled leaves, and small, sessile, bracted flowers densely clustered. The calyx is scarcely toothed; the corolla has a slender, often curved tube and a 4-lobed, or 5-lobed, somewhat 2-lipped limb; there are 4 stamens, in 2 pairs, of 2, borne on the corolla-tube; the 2-celled ovary has 1 ovule in each cavity and the stigma is oblique. The small fruits contain 1 or 2 nutlets, each 1-seeded. Lantana Camara (native Brazilian name) is a stiffly-hairy, branched shrub, from 0.5 to 1.5 meters high, prickly, or unarmed. The ovate to oblong, stalked leaves are finely toothed, from 2 to 12 centimeters long, pointed, or blunt. The flowers are borne in stalked, short clusters, each one subtended by an oblong or lance-shaped bract from 4 to 7 millimeters long; the calyx is about 3 millimeters long; the tube of the corolla is finely-hairy, about 10 millimeters long, the limb from 6 to 8 millimeters wide. The globose, smooth fruits are about 3 millimeters in diameter, black when mature. There are 4 other species of Lantana in the Porto Rico Flora; of these, 2 are also illustrated in this work.

• Discussion

  Cariaquillo Yellow Sage Vervain Family Lantana Camara Linnaeus, Species Plantarum 627. 1753. Lantana scabrida Solander, in Aiton, Hortus Kewensis 2: 352. 1789.