Lantana urticoides Kunth, calico bush, Texas lantana, hierba de cristo. Shrub, not spinescent, winter–deciduous, in range to 90 cm tall; shoots with only cauline leaves, hirsute and short–hirsute with stiff hairs and with short–stalked glandular hairs with colorless heads, longer hairs with swollen bases (pustulate), foliage aromatic when crushed.
Stems initially 4–sided, hirsute and somewhat scabrous, with persistent leaf bases, aging woody.
Leaves opposite decussate, simple, petiolate, without stipules; petiole shallowly channeled, to 10 mm long but poorly defined from blade, short–hairy and glandular–hairy; blade broadly ovate to ovate, 15—74 × < 15—63 mm, truncate or cordate to broadly tapered at base but with narrow taper to petiole, coarsely serrate to serrate–crenate on margins with narrow sinuses, acute to obtuse at tip, pinnately veined with veins sunken on upper surface and principal veins raised on lower surface, upper surface cobblestonelike with uniformly distributed short to long nonglandular hairs; lower surface especially with stiff hairs along white veins
Inflorescence compressed headlike spike, axillary, 1—2 per node, produced slighted above the uppermost leaves, domed and somewhat hemispheric, ca. 20 mm across, 20+–flowered, flowers aligned in ± 8 vertical files and in whorls of 4, with mixed yellow and orange flowers in spike, bracteate, short–hairy and glandular–hairy; peduncle ascending, stemlike, cylindric to ± 4–sided, to 30 mm long, with hairs as on stems; rachis often 15+ mm long, enlarged to 6 mm diameter, with shallow depression forming for each fruit defined by rims around a flat circular scar, short–hairy between scars; lower bractlets subtending spike in pairs spreading, the lowest pair acute–obovate, ca. 6 mm long (2× calyx), 5–veined at base with midrib visible similar to petiole, short–hirsute and with short–stalked glandular hairs, next pair of bracts oblong to oblanceolate, 5—6 mm long, bractlet subtending interior flower crowded and overlapping, cupping calyx, oblong to narrowly triangular or lanceolate, 6.5—9 × 1.3—2 mm, green, acute to acuminate at tip, with 3 parallel veins from base, hirsute with some glandular hairs having colorless heads, abscising at base.
Flower bisexual, bilateral, 8—9 mm across, lightly fragrant; calyx 2–lipped, 2.7—2.9 mm long, tannish; tube barrel–shaped, with short hairs and glandular hairs wherever not hidden by bractlet, ± 1.3 mm wide at orifice; lips without lobes, shallow, subequal, broadly triangular to rounded, < 0.5 mm long, sinuses on front and back sides, short–fringed to short–ciliate and colorless on margins, outer surface short–hirsute (hispid) with some glandular hairs, sometimes tinged purplish red; corolla 2–lipped, 4–lobed, lower lips 5—9 mm diameter, trumpet–shaped (salverform), tube + throat 7—10 mm long; tube cylindric, 3—5.5 × 1 mm (narrower at base), pale greenish white to yellow–orange, outer surface densely pubescent and glandular–hairy, inner surface with short hairs above filaments; throat straight or often curving toward the center of spike, gradually expanding, pinkish and yellowish white, inconspicuously ridged, inner surface with appressed short hairs above filaments of upper anthers (upper throat); limbs spreading, yellow with orange and rose and lower surface paler; upper lip (inward–facing) unlobed, broadly ovate, 1.5 × 2.5 mm, often shallowly notched; lower lip 3–lobed, in bud lobes bent over and dark rose on lower surface, lateral lobes overlapping upper lip, semicircular, 3 × 5 mm, and wavy, lateral lobes 1.5 × 3 mm; stamens 4, pairs fused to corolla throat at base of throat and at midpoint, included; filaments S–shaped, 0.4—0.8 mm long, pale yellow to light yellow; anthers dorsifixed, dithecal, 0.6—0.8 mm long, yellow, longitudinally dehiscent; pollen yellow; pistil 1, 2.5—4 mm long; ovary superior, hemispheric to gumdrop–shaped slightly compressed front–to–back, 0.7—0.8 × 0.7—0.8 mm, green, oblique attached at base, glabrous, 2–chambered, each chamber with 1 ovule; styles the widest at midpoint, white, 2–branched at tip, the stigmatic branches lateral, ellipsoidal and calluslike, 0.5—0.6 mm long, pale green, papillate.
Fruit drupe, fleshy, 1–stoned, spheric, 5—6 mm, purple–black; pulp deep purple, watery; stone extremely hard, angular, brown, with irregular vertical ridges, 2–seeded.
A. C. Gibson