Lantana is a strong-smelling perennial shrub with weak vinelike stems.  Its leaves are opposite, dentate, up to 2" long, ovate and often rugose.  The flowers are rose to lilac or purple, with ovate involucral bracts and 4-5-lobed ± salverform corollas about 1/2" wide.  The calyx is very small.  There are four included stamens in two unequal pairs. The ovary is two-chambered with one ovule per chamber, and the fruit that develops is a fleshy drupe with two spheric nutlets.  Lantana grows up and through hedges and in disturbed places and roadsides, and is a fairly common urban weedy plant at low elevations.  It is naturalized globally and is a native of South America.

Click here for Latin name derivations: 1) Lantana 2) montevidensis.
Pronunciation: lan-TAN-a mon-teh-vi-DEN-sis.
Click here for Botanical Term Meanings.