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Lantana
A tough, colorful butterfly-magnet ornamental grown worldwide - with two honest caveats: its unripe green berries are toxic to children and pets, and it is invasive in warm, Gulf, and coastal regions. Grow it with care, keep the green berries out of reach, and contain it where it can escape.
Safety notes Grown as an ornamental butterfly plant, but with genuine hazards. The BERRIES are the main danger - the unripe green ones most of all, and child fatalities from eating green fruit are on record. Keep ALL berries out of reach - green and ripe mix on the plant. The leaves are toxic to LIVESTOCK (a hepatotoxin causing liver damage), so keep it out of pastures. It is also INVASIVE in warm, Gulf, and coastal regions. If berries are eaten, call poison control or a vet at once.
Overview
Lantana (Lantana camara) is one of the most rewarding heat-loving ornamentals a gardener can grow - a tough, drought-proof, nonstop bloomer whose flat clusters of tiny flowers often change color as they age (the classic multicolor yellow-orange-red 'ham and eggs' look) and draw butterflies and other pollinators in numbers all season. In cold climates it's grown as a reliable summer annual; in warm ones it's a woody shrub. For sheer color and pollinator value in sun and heat, few plants match it, and this is a plant many people happily and responsibly grow.
Quick facts
- Height
- 36 inRange: 12–72 in
- Spread
- 48 inRange: 18–96 in
- Cold
- Killed by frostdamaged below 25°F
- Heat
- Struggles above 110°F
- Life cycle
- Grown as an annualBotanically a perennial
- Self-sows
- Yes, expect volunteers
- Soil
- Well-drained
- Water
- Low
- Plant spacing
- 36 inRange: 18–72 in
When to plant
Nothing is open today. Spring transplanting opens 6 months, Apr 17 to May 25.
- Transplant Apr 17 – May 25 Opens in 179 daysAbout 7 days after to 6 weeks after your last frost (Apr 10 here)Set out well after the last frost, once the soil has genuinely warmed - lantana sulks and rots in cold ground even when the frost date has passed. Grown as an annual here: the first freeze kills it, which is also what keeps it from escaping.
Frost here: last around Apr 10 (Mar 27 to Apr 24 most years), first around Oct 25. Zone averages, your own yard may run a week or two either way.
Life stages
Establish, grow, repeat
Getting established and returning each season are different parts of the story.
Stage 1 of 3 · The recurring year
Growth (grow with care)
Apr to Aug, every year
Care at this stage
-
Rough-textured shrub with a strong-smelling foliage
Lantana grows as a bushy, somewhat sprawling shrub (annual in cold climates, woody perennial in warm ones) with rough, sandpapery, deep-green leaves that give off a strong, pungent smell when brushed or crushed. It's fast, tough, heat- and drought-tolerant, and blooms nonstop in sun. Learn its rough-leaved, strong-scented look, and note that the foliage can irritate sensitive skin, so wear gloves when pruning.
-
Where it's invasive, contain it and choose sterile types
In warm, Gulf, and coastal regions lantana can escape gardens and become seriously invasive, crowding out native plants. If you're in such an area, grow it as a contained annual, choose sterile or low-seed cultivars that set little fruit, deadhead to limit seeding, and avoid planting it near natural areas - or choose a native nectar plant instead. Elsewhere, grown as a frost-killed annual, it can't overwinter to spread.
Months are typical seasonal windows; climate, variety, and plant age can shift them.
Watch out for
3 to know. 1 is high-risk: Toxic Unripe Green Berries. 3 are active in October.
Toxic Unripe Green BerriesSeverity High DisordernowSeason: Jun–OctSmall berry clusters on the plant (green when unripe, blue-black when ripe); children or pets picking or eating the berries.
Small berry clusters on the plant (green when unripe, blue-black when ripe); children or pets picking or eating the berries.
Treat any suspected berry ingestion as an emergency: call poison control / emergency services (or a vet) at once and do not wait for symptoms. Care is supportive; prevention by deadheading and keeping berries out of reach is the reliable safeguard.
Deadhead spent flowers before berries form (this also extends bloom and limits seeding), remove any berries that appear, and keep all berries away from children and pets.
The main human hazard: lantana's UNRIPE GREEN berries are toxic to children and pets if eaten, causing vomiting, diarrhea, weakness, dilated pupils, laboured breathing, and liver damage. Standard extension toxicology classes lantana as potentially FATAL, and deaths of children after eating the green fruit are on record. The ripe dark-blue berries are much less toxic, but because green and ripe berries mix on the plant and children can't tell them apart, ALL berries must be kept out of reach.
Invasive Spread (warm regions)Severity Medium DisordernowSeason: year-roundSeedlings and volunteers escaping the garden in warm regions; dense lantana thickets in wild or disturbed land; birds spreading ripe berries.
Seedlings and volunteers escaping the garden in warm regions; dense lantana thickets in wild or disturbed land; birds spreading ripe berries.
Remove escaped and volunteer plants; established wild stands need persistent removal (cutting plus targeted, appropriate herbicide) to control, so preventing seed and spread is far easier.
In warm regions, grow sterile/low-seed cultivars, deadhead to prevent seed, keep it from natural areas, grow it in containers, or choose native nectar plants; where it's a frost-killed annual, its inability to overwinter limits spread.
The main ecological concern and the reason it's a Caution plant: in warm, frost-free, Gulf, and coastal regions the freely-seeding species escapes gardens (birds spread the ripe berries) and forms dense thickets that crowd out native vegetation, becoming a listed invasive weed in many parts of the world.
Livestock Poisoning (hepatotoxic foliage)Severity Medium DisordernowSeason: Apr–OctLantana in or near pastures and browse areas; grazing animals with access to it; signs of illness or photosensitivity in livestock near lantana stands.
Lantana in or near pastures and browse areas; grazing animals with access to it; signs of illness or photosensitivity in livestock near lantana stands.
A veterinary matter - call a veterinarian for suspected cases; prevention (keeping animals away from the plant) is far more reliable than treatment.
Never plant lantana in or near pastures or where animals browse; keep it out of grazed areas and remove wild stands from pastures in warm regions.
The foliage is toxic to grazing livestock: lantana contains hepatotoxic compounds (lantadenes) that can cause liver damage and photosensitivity (sunburn-like skin damage) in cattle, sheep, and other animals that graze it, sometimes fatally.
Varieties · 2
You pick one when you add Lantana to your garden. Its days to maturity set your harvest window.
Common Lantana (Lantana camara)
The classic tough, heat-loving butterfly plant: a bushy shrub (annual in cold climates) with rough pungent leaves and nonstop clusters of color-changing flowers that draw butterflies all season.
Variety details for Common Lantana (Lantana camara)
Bushy sun-loving shrub with rough leaves and flat clusters of color-changing (yellow-orange-red) flowers; green-to-blue-black berries.
speciesintroducedbutterfly-nectartoxic-berries-cautionGrown with care - its UNRIPE GREEN berries are toxic to children and pets, its foliage is toxic to livestock, and the freely-seeding species is invasive in warm/Gulf/coastal regions. Deadhead, keep berries from children and pets, and contain it where it spreads.
Sterile / low-seed cultivars (e.g. 'Miss Huff', 'New Gold', 'Bloomify' series)
Selected lantana cultivars that set little or no viable seed - the more responsible choice in warm regions where the species is invasive, since they can't spread by seed nearly as readily (and produce few or no toxic berries).
Variety details for Sterile / low-seed cultivars (e.g. 'Miss Huff', 'New Gold', 'Bloomify' series)
Compact, floriferous lantanas in assorted colors that set few or no berries.
cultivarlow-seedsterileresponsible-choicePopular examples include hardy 'Miss Huff', prolific golden 'New Gold', and the sterile 'Bloomify' and 'Luscious' types. Still keep any berries from children and pets and grow with care.
Grower tips
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