Non-invasive Lantana

Can anyone tell me which Lantana cultivars are supposed to be non invasive? There are so many I can't tell them apart.

Is it the berries that spread and make it invasive? If that's how it spreads, then you're better off with L. montevidensis cultivars, I've never seen them make berries like I see all the time on L. camara cultivars. L. montevidensis is the trailing Lantana, colors are lavender, white, and pale yellow, the brighter red/orange/yellow colors are L. camara and it tends to be shrubbier and more upright. But I'm not positive on how it spreads, so hopefully someone else will come along and confirm what I'm thinking.

It is the L.camara that spreads by berries here, but there are supposed to be some cultivars of it that are sterile. I have visited several websites that say to "look for non invasive cultivars", but they don't say which ones those are.

I think the introduced Lantana montevidensis and all of it's cultivars are cause for concern where you live while the L. urticoides and L. camara straight species as well as cultivars of same should be ok for Alabama. Even those can be aggressive out of their natural range here in the US but the urticoides and camara are indigenous to AL.

Interestingly enough, our purty lil NA native L. camara is a big problem overseas-
http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/bsc/wbm/2005/00000005/00000004/art00001
http://www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/invasive/publications/l-camara.html

As far as how L. montevidensis reproduces, it can reproduce by vegetative fragmentation- not good. The plant reproduces both sexually as well as asexually. With all the cultivars out there of montevidensis, it's getting pretty difficult to know what to plant and what not to plant unless one starts an exhaustive search of cultivar parentage. Add to this that cultivars could be helping to create a super race of L. montevidensis that is even more tolerant of drought, sun, and salt. It's mostly spread by birds and human beings who routinely plant this in butterfly gardens.

Aside from being invasive, the berries are poisonous and I think the leaves might be too.

I thought L.camara was an introduced species?

Nope,
http://plants.usda.gov/java/nameSearch?keywordquery=Lantana+camara&mode=sciname&submit.x=0&submit.y=0

Lantana montevidensis is the introduced species-
http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=LAMO2

I'm with escambiaguy, I thought lantana camara was introduced as well. There must be some debate over it because the USF Plant atlas shows it as not native. http://www.plantatlas.usf.edu/main.asp?plantID=1789

This is the website that said to use "better behaved" cultivars : http://www.floridata.com/ref/l/lant_c.cfm

I love floridata! So useful. I just have a hard time purchasing lantana. When I lived in TN they planted it around my office building, and even though they were pretty colored cultivars, I still couldn't help but think they looked like weeds. Why were you thinking of planting it? I mean, did you specifically want lantana or could you substitute something similar?

Personally, I don't think there is such a thing as a better behaved straight species of L. montevidensis let alone a cultivar of same given it has naturalized in so many states.

Here's the problem with L. camara-
http://plants.usda.gov/java/county?state_name=Alabama&statefips=01&symbol=LACA2

Look at the population that has been documented in Mobile and Baldwin Counties. My guess is that would be where the indigenous populations were originally documented. Now look up to Yuscaloosa County. My bet is that is a naturalized population that has been documented. The big problem with the USDA site is that they frequently do not differentiate between which populations are which. You would think that the naturally occurring populations should be green and that the naturalized populations should all be gray but oh not so. Check this out-
http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=LANTA
If you scroll down, you will see montevidensis occurrences all grayed out.

Now check this out-
http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=LAMO2

Confusing? Yup, and it's something they really should address at some point in time because it really throws lots of people for a loop.

Now let's toss a little bit more into the ring on camara-
http://www.issg.org/database/species/ecology.asp?si=56&fr=1&sts=

It's native to a lot more countries than just the US.

Are we having fun yet? I'm not, makes my head spin.

Mellie, I was actually thinking about planting it around one of my sheds. I'd like to have some color around that shed but it gets pretty hot and dry there, and I thought Lantana would survive it without much care. I could also whack it to the ground in the winter. Unless I find a sterile cultivar, I won't bother with it.

Here is an artice that speaks about the best improvement in Lantana - sterilization.

http://plantanswers.tamu.edu/publications/lantana/lantana.html ...

Karin ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thanks! It's nice to know which varieties people can buy and not worry about it taking over the world. I've never been keen on lantanas as they are mostly seen as a weed around these parts. Plus, as a kid they always warned us they were poisonous. And that article wasn't lying about their pungent odor - I hate pulling them up.

I did end up buying a "New Gold" variety which is supposed to be sterile.

i think New Gold is what i have or Yellow Mound maybe. it's very well-behaved, no berries. most of the varieties sold at garden centers here are sterile, tg. it seems that the ones that are solid colors are sterile, as opposed to the tri-colored ones around this area anyway.