Sandy's Garden ... Latana Camara

What do the yellow-fronted white-eye, the fairy-wren, the scaly-breasted munia and the bulbul have in common?
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Yes, very good, they are all birds.

Well, what else do they have in common? Yes, they all have rather unusual names. And another thing? No? Then let me tell you; they all regard the fruit of the lantana plant as a delicacy.

We have one lantana plant in our garden. They’re uncommon in Scotland … though not as uncommon as the yellow-fronted white-eye, the fairy-wren, the scaly-breasted munia and the bulbul … despite the fact that lantanas are quite happy here during the summer.

Falkirk Herald gardening guru Sandy SimpsonFalkirk Herald gardening guru Sandy Simpson
Falkirk Herald gardening guru Sandy Simpson
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We have one to remind us of the northern Italian town of Garda, on the shores of Lake Garda, a town which for many years we visited at least once a year before the arrival of Covid_19 in 2020.

This is the second year during which we have missed our Italian holiday and missed seeing the friends we have made in the area, missed sailing to and from the lakeside towns on the ferries and missed enjoying the extravagant local authority floral displays which add to the attractiveness of every town.

Lantana plants are perennial.

They are native to tropical regions of the Americas and Africa but have proved to be very adaptable and thrive as an introduced species in numerous areas, especially in the Australian-Pacific region, parts of India, South Asia and southern Africa as well as in the south-eastern coastal states of the USA.

Latana is poisonous to grazing animals and is responsible for the deaths of large numbers of farmed animals like sheep, cattle, horses and goats.

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This will not, I think, prove to be a problem for us. We are unlikely to enjoy visits from yellow-fronted white-eyes, fairy-wrens, scaly-breasted munias or bulbuls, thereby reducing the risk of the undigested seeds from eaten berries being spread around.

And, lest our lantana seeks to spread its roots through our soil, it is confined within a large pot.

The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), which has a much better way with words about plants than I, describes lantana thus: “Lantana can be evergreen shrubs or perennials, with simple, often wrinkled leaves, and domed terminal clusters of small, salver-shaped flowers.” Lantana camara, which is what we have, “is an evergreen shrub with sometimes prickly stems bearing wrinkled, ovate leaves and terminal clusters of salver-shaped flowers 1cm across, opening yellow and ageing to red, from late spring to autumn.”

The RHS also tells me that its common names are ‘yellow sage’ or ‘Jamaica mountain sage’ and nominates two nurseries which sell lantana, one in Suffolk and the other in East Sussex. Well, it’s often warmer there than it is here; and I don’t expect my naturally-tropical shrub to survive a Polmont winter.

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The name ‘lantana’ is Latin … the scientific language when Linnaeus categorised all known plants … for ‘viburnum’ by virtue of the similarity of the flowers; and ‘camara’ is the South American name. Whatever, it’s very colourful, very pretty and it reminds us of Garda.

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