Lantana involucrata (Wild lantana)

Buttonsage is an evergreen perennial native to Florida, Central America, and much of South America. It tolerates a wide variety of soils, including disturbed soils and coastal sands. Butterflies love these plants.

Plants: Shrubs 3–6½′ (1–2 m) tall, multiple branched from the base. Stems are somewhat four-angled.

Leaves: Opposite, ovate to oblong-elliptic, up to ¾″ (2 cm) long, with crenate leaf margins. Leaves are highly aromatic when crushed, with densely hairy undersides.

Flowers: Flowerheads are cymes with densely packed flowers, ¼–⅜ ⨉ ⅜–½″ (8–12 mm ⨉ 1–1.5 cm) in size. Flowers are white, sometimes tinged with pink, with yellow centers. They have four fused greenish sepals and four fused petals. Four stamens are fused to the petals. Flowers appear year round.

Habitats: Anthropogenic (human-altered) habitats, coastal sands, dry forests and shrublands.

Kingdom	Plantae	Plants, but not fungi, lichens, or algae (from Stearn's Botanical Latin)
Subkingdom	Tracheobionta	Vascular plants—plants with a “circulatory system” for delivering water and nutrients
Division	Magnoliophyta	Flowering plants, also known as angiosperms
Class	Magnoliopsida	Dicotyledons—plants with two initial seed leaves
Subclass	Asteridae	A large class that encompasses asters
Order	Lamiales	Aromatic herbs and shrubs, including lavender, lilac, olive, jasmine, ash, teak, snapdragon, sesame, psyllium, garden sage, mint, basil, and rosemary
Family	Verbenaceae	Verbena (vervain) family, about 3,000 species
Genus	Lantana	Latin for “viburnum,” whose flowers look somewhat similar
Species	involucrata	Provided with an involucre, a ring of bracts surrounding or enclosing a head of several flowers

About plant names...