08/31/2026
๐๐ฒ๐ฒ๐ฝ๐ถ๐ป๐ด ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐๐ฒ๐ฎ๐๐๐, ๐๐ฟ๐ฒ๐ฒ๐ฑ๐ถ๐ป๐ด ๐ข๐๐ ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐ฅ๐ถ๐๐ธ
With prolific blooms, vibrant colors, low-maintenance growth and an incredible ability to attract pollinators, lantana has plenty of qualities people love. But thereโs a catch: it is also a Category I invasive in Florida that can spread into natural and agricultural areas and cross with native lantana species.
Ph.D. student Hani Hassan, working in Dr. Zhanao Dengโs ornamental breeding program, is helping develop sterile lantana that can preserve those desirable qualities while reducing its ecological and economic impacts.
The program has already licensed three sterile lantana varieties to Ball and Proven Winners, but developing new ones isnโt simple. Breeding can be labor intensive and requires maintaining multiple parental populations. Certain genetic traits can also result in hybrids being fertile instead of sterile.
Haniโs research is helping make the process more efficient. An open-pollinated field breeding approach allows the program to rapidly advance parental populations and generate new hybrids with relatively little labor. A newly developed genetic marker also helps breeders identify, while plants are still seedlings, those that carry a trait that can interfere with sterility.
And the approach is producing results: ๐บ๐ผ๐ฟ๐ฒ ๐๐ต๐ฎ๐ป ๐ต๐ฌ๐ฌ ๐ต๐๐ฏ๐ฟ๐ถ๐ฑ๐ ๐๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ฒ ๐ด๐ฒ๐ป๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ฎ๐๐ฒ๐ฑ ๐ฏ๐ ๐ผ๐ป๐ฒ ๐ฝ๐ฒ๐ฟ๐๐ผ๐ป during the 2025 field season alone.
The ultimate goal is to develop lantana with high sterility, diverse flower colors and desirable growth habitsโkeeping the characteristics that make the plant so popular while reducing the risks associated with its spread.
