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plant species tolerant to grow in diverse habitats with varying environments like wastelands,

rainforest edges, beachfronts, dry forests, agricultural lands, pastures and other
anthropogenically disturbed regions (Website 1). It is a scrambling shrub reaches up to 4 m

height having four-angled stem with simple and opposite decussate leaves, cylindric spiked
inflorescence with multicolor zygomorphic flowers later developing into fleshy purplish

black color berries (Website 2).
Crossing the boundaries of its native range of central and northern South America and the

Caribbean islands, Lantana has invaded many tropical and subtropical countries mostly as an

ornamental or hedge plant and reached to more than approximately 60 countries or island
groups between 35°N and 35°S. Its presence is also observed in protected areas such as in 12

National Parks of Java, Indonesia (Padmanaba et al., 2017).

Lantana was introduced as an ornamental plant in India in Calcutta Botanical garden in
1809. Since then, it has spread to most parts of the country except few regions. A recent study

about assessment of distribution of Lantana in future climatic conditions revealed that it will
show physiological tolerance towards solar radiation and spread in biodiversity rich Western

Himalayan region as well as parts of Eastern Himalayas and Western Ghats of India and
therefore, a well designed management plan is required to control this invasive species

(Panda et al., 2018).

Invasive species are well known to out-compete native species by disrupting their
regeneration and negatively affects the biodiversity of invaded regions. They are also known

to affect hydrology and nutrient cycling (Sundaram et al., 2012). Being allelopathic in nature,
Lantana has affected native biodiversity of invaded regions, declined soil fertility and altered

ecosystem processes (Taylor and Kumar, 2012; Goncalves et al., 2014). It has shown to
affect forage availability for livestock, reduction in crop yields and native medicinal plant

species with profound impact on livelihood of local people in Uganda, West Africa. Not only

this, Lantana also exhibits several other negative socio-ecological impacts such as on tourism,
aesthetics of a landscape, management stress on local communities etc. (Shackleton et al.,

2017).

Management of invasive species requires a holistic strategy to eradicate the menace as
well as appropriate utilization of biomass. An integrative management strategy should be

applied in order to combat with Lantana menace which includes mechanical, biological,
chemical, cultural, ecological and economic approaches depending upon the locality and

other variable factors.

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