How Lantana camara became one of India's worst invasive plants

Lantana Camara (Photo: Canva)Two centuries ago, a British gardener probably admired its clustered pink-and-yellow blooms and thought it would look lovely around a garden hedge.Nobody could have guessed that this ornamental shrub would go on to outcompete some of India's oldest forest cover on the ground, choke the undergrowth that herbivores depend on, and become one of the country's most expensive conservation headaches.This yellow-pink clustered flower, Lantana camara, is easily spotted anywhere and grows recklessly without even being taken care of, so much so that every human eye keen on adoring nature’s beauty must have spotted it.This humble-looking plant, which was initially brought from the Americas in the 1800s only to adorn houses, has now taken over the forest cover that caters t