Plants & Crops Codexery

Tagetes

Genus of 50 marigold species native to the Americas.

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Tagetes

Sabina Bajracharya · CC BY-SA 4.0

The sunflower family Asteraceae includes the genus Tagetes, which comprises roughly 50 species that are either annual or perennial and mostly herbaceous.[1][2] In English, the plants known as marigolds belong to several groups, one of which is Tagetes.[3] Carl Linnaeus gave the formal name Tagetes to this genus in 1753.[3]

Scientific classification

  1. CladeTracheophytes
  2. CladeAngiosperms
  3. CladeEudicots
  4. CladeAsterids
  5. OrderAsterales
  6. FamilyAsteraceae
  7. GenusTagetes

Named by L.

Sources: Wikipedia taxobox: Tagetes (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Quick Facts

Number of species
50
Family
Asteraceae
Common name
Marigold
Named by
Carl Linnaeus

Facts from the source article.

Biology and range

The height of Tagetes species falls between 0.1 and 2.2 meters.[4][2] Green leaves that are pinnate are a characteristic of most Tagetes species.[4] A fibrous root system is present in all marigolds.[4] Central and Southern Mexico, together with several other Latin American countries, are the native regions for these plants.[1]

Naturalization of some Tagetes species has occurred across the globe.[1] Beetles serve as pollinators for numerous Tagetes species in their natural habitats.[5] Certain Lepidoptera caterpillars, including the dot moth, use marigolds as a food source.[5]

What the specialist sources record

The same source notes the most common variety is African marigold (T. erecta), mostly bred as cut flowers.[6] A 2023 University of Florida article reports that during the 16th century, marigolds were introduced to Europe, initially originating in Spain.[7] The University of Saskatchewan states that nearly all marigolds on the market are hybrids of Tagetes erecta, Tagetes patula, and Tagetes tenuifolia.[8] The Central Texas Gardener account describes Tagetes lucida as a perennial Mexican mint marigold that is a great substitute for tarragon.[9]

The ONIX Corporation account notes that in Mexico, Tagetes lucida is used to prepare a sweet, anise-flavored tea.[2] GBIF holds 59,840 occurrence records for this taxon.[10]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "Tagetes" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Soule, J.A. (1996). Infrageneric Systematics of Tagetes. pgs. 435–443 in Compositae: Systematics, Proceedings of the International Compositae Conference, Kew 19 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  2. "Marigold Flower Processing Dryer Systems", The ONIX Corporation. facts only, no text reused. theonixcorp.com
  3. Wikipedia, "Tagetes" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Linnaeus, C., "Species Plantarum", 1753; "Tropicos | Name - !Tagetes L.", www.tropicos.org (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  4. Wikipedia, "Tagetes" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Marigold Flower Processing Dryer Systems", The ONIX Corporation (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  5. Wikipedia, "Tagetes" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Soule, J. A. 1993. Biosystematics of Tagetes (Compositae). Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Texas. (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  6. "All About Marigolds", American Meadows. facts only, no text reused. americanmeadows.com
  7. Julio Perez, "Marigolds: Blooms of Cultural Significance", Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida, October 26, 2023. facts only, no text reused. blogs.ifas.ufl.edu
  8. "Marigold - Tagetes sp.", University of Saskatchewan - College of Agriculture and Bioresources, May 2, 2021. facts only, no text reused. gardening.usask.ca
  9. "Mexican Mint Marigold", Central Texas Gardener. facts only, no text reused. centraltexasgardener.org
  10. GBIF Backbone Taxonomy and occurrence index, Tagetes (taxon key 3088468). CC BY 4.0 (backbone); counts are facts. gbif.org

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Tagetes (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

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Sources

Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.

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