Volume 13 > Part 2 > Year 2016 > Page 414 > Compositae (Asteraceae) > Tagetes

3. Tagetes patula L.wfo-0000038593

Sp. Pl. 2: 887. 1753; C.B.Clarke, Compos. Ind. 142. 1876; Kerr, Fl. Siam. 2(3): 282. 1936; Backer & Bakh.f., Fl. Java 1: 416. 1965; Huang, Fl. Reipubl. Popularis Sin. 75: 387. 1979.

Accepted Name : Tagetes erecta L.
Sp. Pl.: 887. 1753.

Description : Annual herb, to 70 cm tall; stems erect, often much branched. Leaves opposite, upper alternate, petiolate; blade elliptic, 3–7 by 2–3 cm, pinnate, leaflets 3–6 pairs, lateral segments narrowly elliptic or oblong-lanceolate, 1–2 cm by 0.2–0.5 mm, with few orbicular glands along margins, both surfaces glabrous, lower surfaces with oil glands; petioles to 2 cm long, sometimes with small lateral segments. Inflorescences often loosely corymbose; peduncles rather slender, swollen immediately below capitulum, 2.5–5 mm diam. Capitula 3–5 cm diam. at flowering; involucres campanulate, apex 5–7 cleft, 6–17 by 5–12 mm; phyllaries connate to near apex, apex deltoid-acute, generally with 3–4 glands along margins of each phyllary; receptacle flattened, naked. Ray florets 8 per capitulum, pistillate; rays orbicular, 10–13 by 10–11 mm, yellow with orange base, with brownish red markings, or almost entirely brownish red. Disc florets many per capitulum, bisexual; corolla apex 5-lobed, lobes 3–4.5 mm long, basal tube and throat 9–10 mm long. Achenes linear, ca 7 mm long, blackish, appressed setuliferous on angles; pappus of ca 5 scales, subulate, 2 aristate scales ca 8 mm long, others much smaller, 3–4 mm long.

Thailand : NORTHERN: Chiang Mai (common elsewhere but not represented in herbaria).

Distribution : Native of Mexico (type), now naturalised in tropical and subtropical regions of both the New and the Old World.

Ecology : Cultivated as a garden ornamental, but sometimes escaped and naturalised along roadsides. Flowering: probably all year round.

Vernacular : Kham puchu noi (คำาปูจู้น้อย)(Northern); dao rueang noi (ดาวเรืองน้อย)(Central); pho–chi–thong–sa (โพชีโทงซะ)(Karen-Kanchanaburi); pho-thong-cha (โพทองชา)(Karen-Kanchanaburi); yi sun (ยี่สุ่น)(Bangkok, Trang).

CommonName : French marigold.

Notes: Chen & Hind in Fl. China (20–21: 854. 2011) state that plants treated as Tagetes patula are merely tetraploids with smaller involucres than those of T. erecta and wholly or partially red-brown corolla. These authors regard T. patula as a synonym of T. erecta.