var. albiflora Moldenke; L. c. \ai.flava (Medik.) Moldenke; L. c. var. hybrida (Neub.) Moldenke; L. c. var. mutabilis (Hook.) L. H. Bailey; L. c. var. nivea (Venten.) L. H. Bailey; L. c. var. sanguinea (Medik.) L. H. Bailey; L. flava Medik.; L. hybrida Neub.; L. nivea Venten.; L. n. var. mutabilis Hook.; L. sanguinea Medik.]
(nat) Lakana, la‘au kalakala, lana- kana (Ni‘ihau), mikinolia hihiu, mikinolia hohono, mikinolia kuku
Malodorous, erect, branched shrubs usually 2-3 m tall, sometimes subscandent and stems up to 10 m long; stems and branches conspicuously armed with stout recurved prickles or sometimes only rigidly pubescent or slightly prickly. Leaves chartaceous, ovate to oblong, 2-12 cm long, 2-4.5 cm wide, upper surface conspicuously reticulate-rugose and scabrous, lower surface sparsely short-pilose or strigillose, sometimes glabrate, petioles 0.5-2.5 cm long. Flowers in capitate, hemispherical heads arising in the leaf axils, shorter than or slightly surpassing the subtending leaves, not elongating after anthesis, peduncles 2-9 cm long, bracts oblong or lanceolate, 4-7 mm long; calyx ca. 3 mm long; corolla usually opening yellow, sometimes orange, turning rose, scarlet, pink, orange, reddish orange, or rarely white, the tube ca. 10 mm long, the lobes 3-4 mm long. Fruit purple or black, drupaceous, ca. 3 mm in diameter. [2n = 22, 24, 32-34, 36, 38, 40, 44, 55, 66.] Probably native to the West Indies, now widely distributed in tropical and subtropical regions worldwide; in Hawai‘i an extremely serious weed of mesic forest, diverse mesic forest, dry shrubland, and other low elevation, dry, disturbed habitats, 2-1,070 m, on Midway Atoll and all of the main islands. Bird-dispersed, often forming dense, impenetrable thickets, well naturalized prior to 1871 and apparently introduced in 1858 (Hillebrand, 1888).—Plate 193.
Lantana camara is an extremely variable and often misinterpreted species with numerous forms, many of which have been recognized by H. Moldenke as varieties. Most of the plants in Hawai‘i would be referred to var. aculeata with corollas usually opening yellow, turning rose, rose purple, or pink, and with stout, recurved thorns. Moldenke also annotated some Hawaiian specimens as var. nivea with white corollas with a yellow throat and stout thorns. Varieties mutabilis and sanguinea appear to also represent minor variants of corolla color. Numerous attempts to control the spread of lantana by the introduction of various insects have not halted the spread of this species.