LANTANA CAMARA
Common Names:- Lanata
Homotypic Synonyms:- Lantana aculeata, Lantana antillana, Lantana
mutabilis.
Meaning:- Lantana (L) An old Latin name for Viburnum.
Camara (Gr) Arched, vaulted.
General description:- Prickly shrub to 1.5 m, with a strong and unpleasant smell;
young twigs square, hairy as well as prickly.
Stems:-
1) To 1.5 m,
Leaves:-
1) Opposite, 5-8 cm, ovate, margins serrate, rugose, pubescent, short-petiolate.
Flowers:-
1) 4-5 mm, congested into tight, often paired, heads, on long stalks, yellow or
orange changing to red, or all yellow or red, sometimes mauvish.
2) Corolla, weakly 2-lipped.
3) Calyx, with 5 sepals, fused into a tube.
4) Stamens, 4, inserted on the tube of the corolla.
5) Carpels, 2 fused.
Fruit:-
1) Drupe, globose, black, distinctly longer than calyx.
Habitat:- Stony places, waste ground, waysides.
Distribution:- Widely cultivated and occasionally naturalised in the Mediterranean
region, especially in Spain and Sicily. Widespread and common on Crete.
(introduced).
Flowering time:- May-Oct.
Photo by:- Steve Lenton