Tagetes patula L.
French marigold
Erect, glabrous, aromatic annual, 8-40-(50) cm tall. Stems usually much-branched, sometimes not branched. Lvs 1-pinnate, shortly petiolate; leaflets in 2-5-(7) pairs, narrow-elliptic to lanceolate, 0.5-3 cm long, with (0)-2-5-(6) teeth on each side, and scattered, large, sessile glands on both surfaces. Upper cauline lvs smaller than lower, with fewer, narrower leaflets and fewer leaflet teeth. Capitula 2-4 cm diam., solitary; peduncles solid or fistular. Involucre cylindric to campanulate, 12-18-(20) × 5-12-(14) mm, with 4-7 short teeth at apex; glands long, many and ± evenly distributed above and below, or few and mostly confined to upper 1/2. Ray florets 5-numerous; ligules yellow to bright orange, or deep red-brown, sometimes bicoloured with red-brown blotch or markings toward base or paler only at margin, 5-15 mm long. Disc florets numerous, yellow or orange, or many or most transformed into ligulate florets. Achenes 3-4-angled, dark brown or black, sparsely clothed in short antrorse hairs especially on angles, 9-12 × 0.7-1 mm; pappus scales fused toward base, the longest 7-12 mm and with minute marginal antrorse hairs.
S.: Nelson City, Christchurch, Banks Peninsula.
Mexico 1968
Waste places, garden escape.
FL Aug-May.
As with T. erecta, a range of colour forms and single and double cvs are grown and have been collected wild. The deep chestnut red colour, in its plain form or as a bicolour, occurs in cvs of T. patula but never in T. erecta, and so this character immediately identifies many wild plants. However, plain yellow or orange forms of T. patula are also found and may only be distinguished from depauperate plants of T. erecta by the combination of characters listed under that sp.
