Lantana
A tropical shrub with colour-changing flowers; it serves mainly butterflies, matters little to honey bees and is a major invasive.
- Nectar
- Low
- Pollen
- Low
- Flowering
- JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
- Height
- 1-2 m
- Life cycle
- Perennial
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Lantana is a shrub from tropical America that bears clusters of mixed orange, yellow, pink and red flowers; the flowers change colour as they age. They have long, thin tubes and their main visitors are butterflies. Honey bees stop by now and then for nectar and pollen, but the plant is not important bee forage.
Flowering
On Turkey's Mediterranean and Aegean coasts it flowers almost without a break from May until the first cold weather; in the tropics it can flower all year round.
Honey and pollen
Its contribution is small; there is no honey under its name.
Note for the beekeeper
The leaves and unripe berries are poisonous to animals. It is considered one of the world's most problematic invasive plants; in some Mediterranean countries such as Spain it is on the list of invasive species, and it can escape into the wild and smother native vegetation. Planting it as bee forage is not recommended; in coastal gardens native thyme, French lavender (Lavandula stoechas) or rosemary can be chosen instead.