Native Plants

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Saturday - October 20, 2012

From: Vernon, BC
Region: Canada
Topic: Non-Natives, Propagation, Shrubs
Title: Can lantana be grown in British Columbia from Vernon BC
Answered by: Barbara Medford

QUESTION:

Can I grow lantana in Vernon B.C. Canada?

ANSWER:

Probably not. There are five lantana species native to North America, with the following general description:

"This species is a member of the verbena family (family Verbenaceae), which includes about 75 genera and 3,000 species of herbs, shrubs, and trees, mostly of tropical and warm temperate regions."

If you are interested, you might follow each of these plant links to our webpage on that plant and learn where that plant is native, and you will quickly see they are all native to the American South and Southwest.

Lantana achyranthifolia (Brushland shrubverbena)

Lantana involucrata (Button-sage)

Lantana urticoides (Texas lantana) This is the most widespread of the native lantanas, but still it grows no farther north than North Carolina. See this USDA Plant Profile Map for its distribution.

Lantana velutina (Velvet shrubverbena)

Lantana canescens (Hammock shrubverbena)

There are also a wide number of selections of Lantana camara which are not native to North America at all, require USDA Hardiness Zones of 10 to 11, and have a native range of tropical America.

From the Image Gallery

Brushland shrubverbena
Lantana achyranthifolia

Texas lantana
Lantana urticoides

Velvet shrubverbena
Lantana velutina