Lantana trifoliaL.

threeleaf shrubverbena

WFO wfo-0000223429 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 7 observations

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 7 times, so some figures below are different views of the same plant, taken on the same day, rather than different individuals. They are usually different parts of it: the leaf, the flower, the bark.

Lantana trifolia, photographed by Arthur de Jesús Chavarría Pérez
fig. a Arthur de Jesús Chavarría Pérez, CC BY 4.0 / 2020-10-02 / obs. 98388614
Lantana trifolia, photographed by Pedro Henrique Maloso Ramos
fig. b Pedro Henrique Maloso Ramos, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 37697859
Lantana trifolia, photographed by Hugo Hulsberg
fig. c Hugo Hulsberg, CC0 1.0 / obs. 176819712
Lantana trifolia, photographed by Arthur de Jesús Chavarría Pérez
fig. d Arthur de Jesús Chavarría Pérez, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 98388687
Lantana trifolia, photographed by Andy Jordan
fig. e Andy Jordan, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 175816326
Lantana trifolia, photographed by Skjold Søndergaard
fig. f Skjold Søndergaard, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 171547019
Lantana trifolia, photographed by Skjold Søndergaard
fig. g Skjold Søndergaard, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 170568325
Lantana trifolia, photographed by Douglas
fig. h Douglas, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 61643887

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 35 botanical countries

Regions where Lantana trifolia is native: Mexico Central, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Southeast, Mexico Southwest, Argentina Northeast, Argentina Northwest, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil North, Brazil Northeast, Brazil South, Brazil Southeast, Brazil West-Central, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Nicaragua, Panamá, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Suriname, Trinidad-Tobago, Venezuela, Windward Is. Mexico CentralMexico GulfMexico NortheastMexico SoutheastMexico SouthwestArgentina NortheastArgentina NorthwestBelizeBoliviaBrazil NorthBrazil NortheastBrazil SouthBrazil SoutheastBrazil West-CentralColombiaCosta RicaCubaDominican RepublicEcuadorEl SalvadorFrench GuianaGuatemalaGuyanaHaitiHondurasJamaicaNicaraguaPanamáParaguayPeruPuerto RicoSurinameTrinidad-TobagoVenezuela Windward Is.
Native distribution of Lantana trifolia, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows. Regions too small to draw at this scale are marked with a dot.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Argentina Northeast AGE SOUTHERN AMERICA
Argentina Northwest AGW
Belize BLZ
Bolivia BOL
Brazil North BZN
Brazil Northeast BZE
Brazil South BZS
Brazil Southeast BZL
Brazil West-Central BZC
Colombia CLM
Costa Rica COS
Cuba CUB
Dominican Republic DOM
Ecuador ECU
El Salvador ELS
French Guiana FRG
Guatemala GUA
Guyana GUY
Haiti HAI
Honduras HON
Jamaica JAM
Nicaragua NIC
Panamá PAN
Paraguay PAR
Peru PER
Puerto Rico PUE
Suriname SUR
Trinidad-Tobago TRT
Venezuela VEN
Windward Is. WIN
Mexico Central MXC NORTHERN AMERICA
Mexico Gulf MXG
Mexico Northeast MXE
Mexico Southeast MXT
Mexico Southwest MXS

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Where it actually grows measured, from 270 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low 7.2 °C 16.8 °C 23.5 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 23.1 °C 29.1 °C 32.2 °C
Annual rainfall 1,108 mm 1,759 mm 3,739 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 26 mm 131 mm 385 mm

It is barely found anywhere that freezes. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 270 research-grade observations of Lantana trifolia that carry a coordinate, and this is the range those places actually span. The 5th and 95th percentiles are used rather than the minimum and maximum, because a single cultivated specimen in a heated conservatory should not widen a tropical plant's range to the Arctic.

This is not a hardiness zone. A USDA zone is the average annual extreme minimum temperature. The figure above is the mean daily minimum of the coldest month, which is a different quantity and is typically far warmer. Reading one as the other would place a plant several zones too warm, so we do not publish a hardiness zone, because we do not have one.

Also published as 37 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Camara trifolia (L.) Kuntze
  • Camara trifolia f. rosea Kuntze
  • Camara trifolia var. grandifolia Kuntze
  • Camara trifolia var. indica Kuntze
  • Camara trifolia var. normalis Kuntze
  • Lantana annua L.
  • Lantana bipinnatifida Sessé & Moc.
  • Lantana celtidifolia Kunth
  • Lantana cubensis Moldenke
  • Lantana dubia Wall. ex Walp.
  • Lantana dubia Royle
  • Lantana fiebrigii Hayek
  • Lantana fiebrigii var. puberulenta Moldenke
  • Lantana gogchana Buch.-Ham. ex Voigt
  • Lantana maxima Hayek
  • Lantana maxima f. alba Moldenke
  • Lantana mearnsii Moldenke
  • Lantana mearnsii var. congolensis Moldenke
  • Lantana mearnsii var. punctata Moldenke
  • Lantana pilosa Kunth
  • Lantana pittieri Moldenke
  • Lantana trifolia f. albiflora Moldenke
  • Lantana trifolia f. brevipes Moldenke
  • Lantana trifolia f. congolensis (Moldenke) R.Fern.

and 13 more.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.