Lantana, an exotic species brought to India as a decorative and hedge plant, may no longer be a 'pest', thanks to a Ford Foundation-funded project executed by the Forest Research Institute (FRI)) in Dehra Dun. Experts working at research centres in Haryana, Madhya Pradesh and Orissa, have succeeded in using the Lantana wood for furniture which put up with rigorous durability tests not in the laboratories but in the users' places.