The five-color plum (scientific name: Lantanacamara) is the same as lantana, and the Hakka people call it the cotton-nosed male flower. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info was originally mainly distributed in South America, West India, and was an evergreen shrub of the genus Lantana. The flowering period is from mid to late April to mid-February of the following year, but depending on the climate and temperature, it can be seen blooming almost all year round, and it can be said that the plant is in full bloom [1]. There are often multi-colored changes in a cluster of inflorescences, so the alias is also called five-color plum, multicolored flowers, and the branches and leaves contain a special pungent smell, so Ma Yingdan also has stinky grass, stinky golden phoenix and other aliases. It was introduced by the Dutch in Taiwan around 1645, and is now an exotic species that can be seen in the wild on the flatlands of Taiwan due to its strong fecundity.

There are many aliases of five-color plums, including lantana, mountain dandan, big red hydrangea, coral ball ("Nanyue Notes"), stinky golden phoenix, ruyi flower, faint flower ("Lingnan Herb Collection"), seven flowers ("North China Economic Flora Chronicles"), Ruyi grass ("Guangzhou Flora"), saffron, stinky peony, insecticidal flower ("Nanning City Medicine"), Mao Shenhua ("Southern Fujian Folk Herbal Medicine"), stinky cold wind ("Guangxi Traditional Chinese Medicine"), Tianlan grass ("Hunan Medicine"), stinky grass (Guangzhou Army's "Handbook of Commonly Used Chinese Herbal Medicine") , five-color flowers, five thunder arrows, wall-piercing wind ("Guangxi Chinese Herbal Medicine"), wild eye vegetables (Jiangxi "Herbal Medicine Handbook"), colorful flowers, safflower thorns, mother-in-law flowers ("Fujian Chinese Herbal Medicine"), pig feces flower (Chaozhou).

It is an evergreen shrub with a height of 1~2 meters, and sometimes its branches grow in the shape of vines. The stems are square, pubescent, and often have short, barbed spines. Single leaves opposite, ovate or ovate oblong, apex acuminate, base rounded, rough hairy on both sides, rubbed with a strong smell, capitate inflorescence axillary in the upper part of the branches, each inflorescence more than 20 flowers, the corolla tube is slender, the apex is more five-lobed, like a plum blossom. The corolla is varied in color, yellow, orange-yellow, pink, deep red. The flowering period is long, and there are flowers almost all year round when planted in the open field in the south, and the largest amount of flowers in Beijing potted plants in July ~ August. The fruit is a spherical berry and purple-black when ripe. There are 150 species in the same genus, 2 species are introduced and cultivated in China, and there are many horticultural varieties. L?montevidensis is semi-vine-like, with rose-red flowers and blue-purple. The flowers of cv?Nivea are mainly white. The flowers of cv?Hybrida are mainly yellow.

Five-color plum is also called horse cherry pill, stinky grass, seven sisters, is an erect or semi-vine shrub of the verbena family. The flowering period is 5~10 months, and most of the small flowers are densely packed into hemispherical capitate inflorescences, and the flower color is changeable, yellow or pink at the beginning of the flower, then turns orange or orange red, and finally red. There are red and yellow in the same inflorescence, so it is called five-color plum and seven-change flower. Its flowers have an inducement to attract butterflies, and whenever the flowers bloom, many butterflies flutter to them.

Five-color plum

The whole plant is covered with short hairs and has a strong smell. The leaves are opposite, ovate or heart-shaped. In the warm provinces of the south of the Yangtze River, it can bloom all year round. Although its flowers are small, less than 1 cm in diameter, they are densely clustered by numerous small flowers to form a capitate inflorescence with a diameter of up to 4~5 cm. The inflorescences are denser. The corolla is cylindrical, with 4 stamens. There are many varieties of lantana, and yellow, red, orange, purple, white and other flower colors are more common. Some varieties have a mixture of orange and red colors during flowering. As ground cover ornamentation, yellow and purple flower varieties are the most widely used. [2]

Likes light and warm, humid climate. It is adaptable, drought tolerant and barren, but not cold-tolerant, and grows well in loose, fertile and well-drained sandy loam soils. The flowering period is June ~ October. Sex likes warm, moist, sunny places. Drought-tolerant, slightly shade-tolerant, not cold-tolerant. In the south, it is basically cultivated in the open field, and in the north, it can be used as a potted ornament. The requirements for soil quality are not strict, and the best growth is in fertile, loose sandy soil.

This species is a tropical plant, likes high temperature and high humidity, is also resistant to dry heat, poor cold resistance, keeps the temperature above 10 °C, and the leaves do not fall off. Avoid ice and snow, strong adaptability to soil, drought tolerance and water resistance, and low requirements for fertility. [3]