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Tagetes
Also called Marigolds, Mexican Marigolds
Tagetes is a genus of about 50 mostly herbaceous annual or perennial species in the daisy family, including the common garden marigolds, grown for their bright golden, orange, yellow or white flowers. Most garden types are treated as annuals and need full sun and well-drained soil.
Tagetes () is a genus of 50 species of annual or perennial, mostly herbaceous plants in the family Asteraceae. They are among several groups of plants known in English as marigolds. The genus Tagetes was formally named by Carl Linnaeus in 1753. Linnaeus cited Joseph Pitton de Tournefort (1700), Johann Jacob Dillenius (1732), Gaspard Bauhin (1623) and Fabio Colonna (1606) as authors who used the name 'Tagetes' before. In 1754 he published the formal description in his Genera Plantarum, referring to Tournefort, Sébastien Vaillant (1720) and Dillenius for the name 'Tagetes'.
Originally called cempōhualxōchitl, by the Nahua people, these plants are native to Central and Southern Mexico and several other Latin American countries. Some species have become naturalized around the world. One species, T. minuta, is considered a noxious invasive species in some areas.
Depending on the species, marigold foliage has a musky, pungent scent, though some varieties have been bred to be scentless. Due to antibacterial thiophenes exuded by the roots, Tagetes should not be planted near any legume crop. Some of the perennial species are deer-, rabbit-, rodent- and javelina or peccary-resistant.
T. minuta (khakibush or huacatay), originally from South America, has been used as a source of essential oil for the perfume industry known as tagette or "marigold oil", and as a flavourant in the food and tobacco industries. It is commonly cultivated in South Africa, where the species is also a useful pioneer plant in the reclamation of disturbed land.
Tagetes epapposa · Aztec marigold · Sweetscented marigold · Tagetes mendocina · Muster John Henry · Tagetes oaxacana · French marigold · Signet Marigold
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Tagetes by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
