Is Lantana deer resistant?

Pungent foliage, and deer usually walk past it. It flowers relentlessly from planting to frost with no deadheading, which is rare.

Sold as an annual almost everywhere and perennial only from about zone 9 south. Where it is perennial it becomes a woody shrub several feet across.

That hardiness is exactly the problem in warm regions. Lantana is invasive in Florida, Texas and Hawaii, spread by birds taking the berries, and it forms thickets that displace native vegetation. In those states plant a sterile cultivar or something else entirely. North of zone 9 it dies every winter and the question does not arise.

The berries are toxic to livestock, and to children if eaten green.

Do deer eat lantana?

Seldom. Rutgers rates the genus Seldom Severely Damaged, listed on E271 as "Lantana, Lantana sp." among the annuals, and NC State's Plant Toolbox lists deer, drought, heat, humidity and salt as the challenges Lantana camara resists. The leaf is rough and smells strongly when brushed, and the whole plant carries lantadene, which is why it appears on the poison lists as well as the deer lists. The second tier is not the first. Under pressure the flower clusters and the soft tips are taken, and a bed of newly set plants in May, all soft growth, is at more risk than the same bed in August after the stems have gone woody.

Where it grows

NC State: hardy in zones 7a through 11b, in full sun, 1 to 6 feet depending on the cultivar, flowering "from midsummer until the first frost." North of zone 7 it is an annual and the size question does not arise. NC State also files it as "Weedy," and Florida, Texas and Hawaii list it as invasive.

Protecting lantana

Mostly nothing. Where tips are being taken in the first weeks after planting, one application of the 20 percent egg spray Colorado State rates High, renewed at about thirty days, carries the plants to the point where they are woody. The ASPCA lists lantana as toxic to cats, dogs and horses. NC State puts the poison severity at Medium, with "vomiting, diarrhea, dilated pupils, labored respiration, weakness, liver failure - more common in livestock," and notes the leaves "may cause dermatitis in sensitive individuals." The callout below carries the pet warning.

If it is browsed

It regrows from the nodes below the bite and flowers on the new growth, since it flowers on current growth until frost. Frost, not deer, is what ends it.