Wild Sage

Lantana involucrata

Wild Sage or Buttonsage is found naturally along the coast from the Florida Keys to Brevard County. It is also found in the West Indies and Puerto Rico. This light silvery colored shrub is tolerant of salt air and drought and likes moderately fertile, sandy soil that doesn’t flood.

The one inch rounded leaves are soft and smell like sage when crushed. The flowers are white with a yellow center and some having a pink blush. The berries are purple or magenta. The flowers attract butterflies and the berries attract birds.

The fruit are considered edible when ripe and may be poisonous, like Lantana camara, when green. Dogs, cats and livestock can be poisoned by Lantana camara, so Wild Sage may be poisonous too. For information on its toxicity, click here.

Wild Sage is a rounded shrub about three feet tall that should be used in butterfly gardens along with Florida Keys Thoroughwort, Bloodberry, Firebush, Pineland Privet, Florida Boxwood, Inkwood, Hercules Club and Wild Lime-which needs lots of space around it.

Make sure you are buying this native species and not one of the “naturalized”-invasive species. None of the low orange or white flowered species are native and most are very invasive. Just buy from a reputable native nursery and do your research; even native plant growers get confused sometimes and may sell you a “native orange lantana”.

For more info, Click here, and here, and for info about the other Lantana species, click here.