Lantana camara
Family: Verbenaceae
Bush Lantana
Origin: South America
It was an early introduction elsewhere in the tropical world, where it soon escaped the confines of gardens and became a weed. L. camara is a prickly shrub, about 3-6 ft in height, with ovate rough leaves and almost continuous displays of blooms that appear as clusters made up of tiny florets. Orange or red-orange are the commonest colors, but there are cultivars with larger white, pink, or lemon-yellow flowers. People like having Lantana in a garden because of the pungent smell of the leaves, and appreciate the reliable display of bright flowers. In Thailand, several colors are sometimes grafted onto a single trunk and the result trained into a standard. Lantana always prefers full sun and well-drained soil. Propagation is by air-layering or from woody cuttings.
