Kirjotulikruunu – Lantana camara

Stems are square-shaped with short, curved and hooked prickles. Leaves are opposite, with short stalks. Blades are simple, ovate to lanceolate, up to 10 cm long, with toothed edges, rough and bright green on the upper surface and hairy and pale green below. Flowers are in dense clusters (umbels) and vary in colour from red-yellow, orange-pink, to white. Calyx is ca. 3 mm long, pubescent. Corolla tube is ca. 10 mm long, pubescent, limb 6-9 mm in diameter, with 4 spreading rounded lobes. Fruits are in clusters, fleshy, one-seeded drupes about 6-8 mmin diameter, green at first, then turning shiny, dark purple-black when ripe. The plant produces a strong, aromatic odour when crushed.

Flowering and fruit production can occur almost year round in suitable areas where there is adequate soil moisture, high air humidity and high temperatures. Lantana spreads by fruit eating birds, movement of water, contaminated soil and machinery, deliberate planting and poorly disposed garden waste. It spreads vegetatively by horizontal stems which are able to take root.