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Lantana camara L.

Synonym	:	Lantana asperata Vis.
Family	:	Verbenaceae
Local name	:	English - Lantana, Shrub verbena Malayalam - Arippu, Kongini
Flowering and fruiting period	:	April-June
Distribution	:	Native of Tropical America, widely naturalised   in the tropics and subtropics
Distribution in Kerala	:	All Districts
Habitat	:	Introduced as ornamental plant; now naturalised as weed
Endemic/Exotic	:	Exotic
Uses	:	It is used in traditional herbal medicines for treating a variety of ailments including cancer, skin itches, leprosy, rabies, chicken pox, measles, asthma and ulcers.
Key Botanical Characters: Much branched scandent shrubs; stem 4-angled, armed with short thorns. Leaves simple, opposite, ovate or elliptic-ovate, apex acute to shortly acuminate, base subcordate or truncate, margin creneate-serrate, scabrous above, puberulous below. Inflorescence terminal and axillary condensed spikes. Flowers sessile, orangish-red, changing to deep red on ageing; bracts closely imbricating. Calyx truncate. Corolla salver-shaped, slender, cylindric, bent and inflated over stamens; lobes 5, obscurely 2-lipped. Stamens 4, included. Ovary 2-celled; style slender; stigma subcapitate. Drupe globose, purple on ripening; seeds reticulate.