All hearsay but I could well imagine it could really happen.

As far as I know it is still listed as an environmental weed. This doesn't make it a noxious weed or illegal to have or maybe even plant. There is some argument to keep the lantana as it has naturalised to an area and it does supply a habitat to native fauna. If it were to be removed it would have to be done over a long term so that the fauna would still have somewhere to go untill the replanted native plants have established.

It is a problem and in the perfect world the long term eradication would be the way to go, BUT???????

Doug.

See my posting above. The BCC and the DNR list them as environmental weedsbut that doesn't necessarily make them illegal.

FYI. A few more environmental weeds that many don't realise they are listed but not illegal.

Jacaranda, Euc torelliana (it has been renamed??)African Tulip tree, Tipuana, Golden Rain Tree, Coffee, Impatiens. And so the list goes on. There must be thousands of the first 5 planted through out Brisbane by the BCC. I have heard the Poinsianna may be going the same way.

Doug.

When the Fed. Govt. declared lantana a weed of national significance they included L. montevidensis and all lantana hybrids however it seems to have fallen by the way. In my opinion all lantana should be pulled out and destroyed. There are plenty of options to lantana, both native and exotic without taking the risks of it getting out of hand.

Doug.

I view all varieties as weeds, and hope though nurseries are permitted to sell it they would take some initiative in presenting alternatives to the consumer. After lantana's 150 years in Australia, I accept that it's providing habitat for certain native fauna and am all for paced control in sensitive areas.

As for L. montevidensis, the hills are alive with it on Kroombit Tops and in adjacent farming and grazing land as well as elsewhere. There is work being done on ecology and control as it's not just a scaled down L. camara. Observing its spread on my bit of dirt north of Rocky, I've never found a seedling in the garden unlike L. camara, but the infestation is spreading on a face along and out from the creek, presumably by vegetative means. Rose.

Have you heard any more about "The Strategic Plan for Lantana"?
Hearsay info was it went by the wayside.
The people who keep telling us the hybrids are OK should read the Plan and the heed the Plan.

Burn it all, I say.

Doug.

Doug.

Lantananine depending on intake, and the fruits have the highest concentration, causes photosensitivity in cattle, the skin of their nose and tongue peel and they die a horrible death unless put down. On post mortem their liver is quite yellow with a distinctive odour. Once an animal has ingested enough and becomes affected it goes for deep shade, shakes its head frequently and even the quietest one will charge at anyone (even on a horse) who comes near. I am talking from first hand experience at Innisfail.

Read Selwyn Everest's 1960s QDPI book on Poisonous Plants in Qld if your Library can call it up.

I am sure you will find this to be the case?

PAUL

Yes I have seen a yellow lantana hybrid in my next door neighbours garden in Brisbane, that seems to behave reasonably well.I assume it is a sterile hybrid and I doubt if any birds would transplant it. Or the probability is so insignificant as to be forgettable.

Even though this Lantana sppX. c.v.yellow, makes a pretty and floriferous path-border, I believe there are plenty of other plants to do the same job, and fragrance the area as well e.g. Gardenia etc.etc.

And the history of Luther Burbank (1849-1926) and his much touted (recessive) "thornless' prickly pear which quickly reverted to a very spiky noxious weed and made him out as foolish, gives me some pondering. A Brisbane suburb is named after Burbank for his better exploits with 800+ new strains of plants.

I've eaten kilos of lantana berries, without any negative side effects. I thought I was "living off the land".

I'm not sure I believe the bit about them being poisonous. Perhaps the leaves, but not the berries.

They taste nice, by the way, but the large seed spoils it. You really only get to roll the fruit around in your mouth to remove the outer skin and flesh.

Choose the purply-black berries with shiny skins. The dull ones aren't as nice.

Several cultivars of Lantana camara are very toxic particularly the red with yellow centre in N Qld. A 1948 text - CSIR Bulletin 232 Web, L.J. (Len), "Guide to the Medicinal and Poisonous Plants of Queensland" describes the pink is toxic in N.Qld. p.168.

I would check with the Alan Fletcher Research Station on (07) 3375 0700 or with someone who had tested the berries at that stage of ripeness, before having a feed. Taster beware!

However, just as a little experiment, I'll break a little bit of lantana off each plant and drop it out the front near the nature strip between the sidewalk and the wall out in full sun to see if they start growing. That way, we'll see if, here in Perth, the nursery grown varieties are safe.

And where do these berries come from??? All our varieties DON'T produce berries, only these small green spike balls after the flowers have dropped off.

Saintin