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Lantana montevidensis
Also called Trailing lantana, Weeping lantana, Creeping Lantana, Purple Lantana, Small Lantana, Wild Verbena, Purple Trailing Lantana
In Singapore: Trailing Lantana, Polecat Geranium (Cultivated in Singapore)
Lantana montevidensis is a trailing South American subshrub with lavender to purple flowers that forms dense mats and works well as a drought tolerant groundcover or container plant. It thrives in full sun and needs well drained soil.
Lantana montevidensis is a species of lantana native to South America that often forms dense thickets and mats over the ground. It is known by many common names, such as: trailing lantana, weeping lantana, creeping lantana, small lantana, purple lantana or trailing shrubverbena.
The name Lantana derives from the Latin name of the wayfaring tree Viburnum lantana, the flowers of which closely resemble Lantana. The name montevidensis derives from the city Montevideo, Uruguay, where the species originated.
Lantana montevidensis is also cultivated as an ornamental plant for its plentiful colorful lavender to purple flowers and as a drought tolerant groundcover, woody vine, and trailing plant for containers and in the ground. In subtropical climates there are flowers most of the year, with variegated leaved cultivars also available. It is a hardy, long-lived shrub that can withstand periods of extended drought and an ability to grow and reproduce under both shade and full sun. This plant is toxic to livestock.
Native to Uruguay, northeastern and northwestern Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay and southern Brazil, the plant is present nearly worldwide as an introduced species of garden and landscape plant, where it is naturalized in New Zealand, Hawaii, New Caledonia and southern United States (i.e. California, Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, Georgia and Florida). In some areas, such as parts of Australia and Hawaii, it is a noxious weed and invasive species. It is found typically in tropical and subtropical environments, and sporadically in temperate and semi-arid areas.
[Contains information from Leaf Area Index (LAI) and Heritage Trees from data.gov.sg (National Parks Board), made available under the terms of the Singapore Open Data Licence version 1.0]
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Lantana montevidensis by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
