Lantana Camara.
 

Lantana camara - Wikipedia

One of these huge bushes invaded my backyard and I have been chopping and cutting the thing but once it looks like I am done I see another layer of it. Some of it is dead but it seems to use this dead stuff as a wall. Mother Nature sure is clever.

Anyone have experience dealing with the plant?

I have no idea where it came from. We never planted it.

It kind of set up a fortress protecting its root area.

The sap is a little toxic but quite smelly.

I do think this is the right ID for the plant.

Invasion of the Landscape Snatchers: Lantana (Lantana camara) -

Have you tried some of the commercial plant killers? You can contact Master gardener and they should be able to tell you specifically how to get rid of the plant.

Here is their website:
Florida Master Gardener Program - Solutions for Your Life - University of Florida, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences - UF/IFAS

Thanks.

Right now I am just trying to cut down the parts with hanging fruit of any kind. Or knock them down.

It was a very large entangled mess when I started. It was to the roof (maybe 9 feet) and then about 6 feet across and pushing into the trees that had been planted when the house went up.

It was not there a few years ago. Its growth has been over the past two years or so.

It is probably some mis-identified lantana sold somewhere in or near the Villages.

It does look like I will have to kill the root which could be massive.

If the root is that massive, there are two approaches ;

I’d get a drill with a large bit and drill numerous holes into the trunk/rootball. Once drilled pour undiluted (commercial strength if you can find it) Round up into those freshly drilled holes. Or, you can cut numerous branches and using a paint brush “paint” Round up on those freshly cut stumps.

The plant will then circulate that chemical in its vascular system.

Spray it with roundup. You need to kill the entire plant all the way to the roots. Pruning it back is not effective control.

When controlling weeds, it's important to kill the plant and roots before pulling out the above ground part. Pulling out a live weed leaves lots of broken off roots in the soil, and every root can grow back as its own new weed in a few weeks.
What happens when hiring a company to get rid of weeds? If they charge a per visit rate, they just pull the weeds out - looks great but also guarantees them lots of income from many repeat visits. If they charge a yearly flat rate, then they use roundup first to minimize their time needed in the future - still looks great, but for much longer.

Thanks. I have almost all the berry bearing branches out and now will need to work on the various dead branches protecting the inside of this massive weed. The Villages garbage guys got most of it in numerous bags I put out last night which I had put extra covering on. Thankfully I believe they burn all that which is what often happens with lantana camara.

That is our native Lantana. Buried my neighbor's cow last year when it died from eating it. Awesome butterfly bush.

I suggest you Preen the area (now and in the spring) to kill the seeds, they are pretty small.

Lantana grow wild in Florida

Is there lantana in the Philippines? – Wise-Answer.

Fart. Not that but for the smell of lantana camara.

It is a world wide problem.

https://youtu.be/W9zUSQbPu9g

It is a big problem in parts of Australia.

Lantana

This has some very good pictures of lantana camara if you need to identify it.

For what it's worth - there is a Lantana, FL north of Ft. Lauderdale. I guess that a small town wanted to name itself after a toxic weed. As far as never being planted - seeds blow in and also birds transport them. I find that Golden Rain trees are like nasty medium-sized weeds that blow in anywhere and establish themselves right in among your ornamentals or hedges.

Hawaiin pictures of Lantana Camara.
 

Lantana camara - Plants of Hawaii - Starr Environmental

I hope these help if this shows up more here in the Villages and around it.

https://wildlifeofhawaii.com/flowers...amara-lantana/

Hmm… we purposely planted Lantana in our backyard landscape because it attracts butterflies, but not bees. We love it! Ours are small plants though. Very short and clustered together, not tall and spreading everywhere. The butterfly gardens in the villages purposely plants them too. I’ve never seen invasive lantana, not even in SoCal where we had it in our backyard. In fact, we struggled to get it to grow into a decent looking bush in California.

There are different kinds of lantana.



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