Lantana

Lantana is a common garden favourite for its colourful flowerheads.

Description

• Smelly, scrambling shrub up to 3 metres tall.

• Young stems are 4-angled, hairy and prickly, older stems are rounded and brittle.

• Leaves are oval, hairy, opposite, and wrinkled.

• Flowerheads are flat, small, and pink/yellow/orange.

• Fruit is blue/black when ripe, appearing in berry-list clusters.

• Seeds are dispersed by birds. Roots are spread in contaminated soil and dumped vegetation.

• Habitats include coastal scrubland, cliffs, foreshores, consolidated dunes, forest margins, grassland, wasteland, plantations, and gardens.

What you need to know

Lantana has the potential to alter vegetation structure in open or low-stature plant communities. It reduces productivity and is toxic to livestock.

Management approach

Lantana is declared an unwanted organism by the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) because it is capable of causing harm to the natural environment, physical resources or human health in Aotearoa/New Zealand.

These species pose a high risk to our environment, economy, recreation, and cultural values.

Rules

Any species declared a pest, including unwanted organisms, cannot be sold or be in a place where plants are being sold. Pest plants cannot be propagated, bred, or multiplied, communicated, released, or cause to be released, or otherwise spread.

Control

Do not attempt to undertake control of lantana yourself. Report any sightings to us.