Goodbye Lantana

Lantana (Lantana camara) is a large flowering shrub native to Central and South America. This species was introduced to Australia as an ornamental garden plant.

Although Lantana forms clusters of flowers that can be considered a thing of beauty – the flowers on a single plant can produce up to 12,000 fruit in a year. Each fruit is a small round berry that holds a single seed. Many birds find these berries irresistible, and after consuming, roam far and wide spreading viable seeds in their droppings. As a result, this garden variety has now invaded more than 4 million hectares of Australia!

It grows to form dense thickets that smother and exclude native plant species. Left unchecked, these dense thickets are left to dominate areas of Australian bushland and grassland. As such, Lantana is classified as a weed of national significance and is listed as key threatening process under legislation. 

For over a decade Sydney Olympic Park has been removing mature stands of Lantana in natural areas in a staged approach. 

Each stage involved the removal of mature stands in an area, with only woody stems (free of seeds) retained in piles. As these piles decompose and attract a variety of insects, many native animals that depend on insects as part of their diet benefit. The areas were then replanted with native shrubs and groundcovers. 

The following stage of Lantana removal was only implemented after the previous plantings had matured to form a dense shrub layer. This staged approach ensured that native wildlife such as woodland birds that depend on dense vegetation always had suitable habitat available.