Tagetes persicifolia

Tagetes persicifolia
Tagetes persicifolia leafy, flowering stem
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Embryophytes
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Asterids
Order: Asterales
Family: Asteraceae
Genus: Tagetes
Species:
T. persicifolia
Binomial name
Tagetes persicifolia
Synonyms[1]
  • Adenopappus persicifolius Benth.

Tagetes persicifolia, with no English name, is a species of shrub native only to Mexico. It belongs to the family Asteraceae.[1]

Description

These features help distinguish Tagetes persicifolia from many other Aster Family species with yellow flowers:[2]

  • It is a herbaceous shrub or subshrub which is a perennial up to 2 m (6 ft 6+1⁄2 in) tall, with one to a few branching stems rising from the base.
  • Leaves up to 16 cm (6.3 in) long and 2 cm (3⁄4 in) wide arise opposite one another on stems. Blades are hairless but covered with minute glands. Blade margins are finely toothed, and blade bases unite forming a tube around the stem up to 18 mm (3⁄4 in) long.
  • Floral heads arise singly at branch tips and where leaves connect to the stems. Up to 15 "ray florets" along the head's margin have flat, petal-like, yellow corollas up to 15 mm (5⁄8 in) long. These radiate from around the head's "eye," which consists of up to about 50 "disc florets" with yellow, cylindrical corollas. No scale-like bracts, or "paleae" appear among the floret bases. Below floral heads, about 15 slender involucral bracts arranged in a single row have their sides fused together and bear oil-containing glands.
  • Slender, one-seeded, cypsela-type fruits up to 8 mm (5⁄16 in) long are topped by pappuses reduced to a crown of 5 projections only up to 0.4 mm (1⁄32 in) high.

Distribution

Tagetes persicifolia in endemic only to the Mexican states of Colima, Durango, Guanajuato, Hidalgo, Jalisco, México, Michoacán, Nayarit, Oaxaca and Querétaro.[3]

Habitat

Tagetes persicifolia occurs along banks of streams, rivers and irrigation canals, as well as in cultivated fields and gardens, at an elevation of 1,700–2,400 m (5,600–7,900 ft).[2][4]

Taxonomy

In 1840 when George Bentham formally described Tagetes persicifolia under the name of Adenopappus persicifolius, apparently because he considered the species' very low, crownlike pappus to be a circle of glands atop the cypsela and not a real pappus, he erected the genus Adenopappus to accommodate it; The Adeno- in the name derives from the Greek adḗn, meaning "gland."[5] Now Adenopappus is considered synonymous with Tagetes.[1]

In the description of the new taxon, it is noted that the type specimen had been collected along the banks of a river at Maravatío -- ... ad margines fluviorum, Maravateo. The collector had been Karl Theodor Hartweg.[6]

Phylogeny

Phylogenetic analysis of sequences of internal transcribed spacers found Tagetes persicifolia to belong to a strongly-supported "Lucida clade", in which T. persicifolia is sister to the other members of the clade tested, which were Tagetes lucida, Tagetes pringlei, Tagetes filifolia and Tagetes micrantha. Members of this clade are common in wet soils and mostly have a sweet, anise-like aroma.[7]

Etymology

The origin of the genus name Tagetes is unknown, though it may honor Tages, supposed to be a founding prophet of the Etruscan religion.[8]

The species name persicifolia begins with a form of the Latin Persicus, which means "Persian," as reflected in the scientific name for peach trees. Peach trees are Prunus persica, suggesting a Persian origin, because Europeans such as Linnaeus, who formally named the species (as Amygdalus persica), thought that peach trees originated in Persia.[9] However, they are from China.[10] The -folia in the species name is from the Latin folium, mean "leaf."[11]

Therefore, if an English name for Tagetes persicifolia were to be coined, surely it would be "Peach-leafed Marigold."

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Tagetes persicifolia (Benth.) B.L.Turner". Plants of the World Online. United Kingdom: Royal Botanic Gardens Kew. Retrieved June 2, 2026.
  2. 1 2 Villarreal Q., José Ángel (August 2003). "Compositae tribu Tageteae" (PDF). Flora del Bajío y de Regiones Adyacentes (in Spanish). 113. Pátzcuaro, Michoacán, México: Instituto de Ecología, A.C. (INECOL): 3–5. Retrieved June 2, 2026.
  3. ↑ Villaseñor, José Luis (August 4, 2016). "Checklist of the native vascular plants of Mexico". Revista Mexicana de Biodiversidad. 87. Mexico City: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. Retrieved June 2, 2026.
  4. ↑ Rzedowski, J. (June 2020). "El endemismo en plantas mexicanas acuáticas y subacuáticas de la familia asteraceae". Polibotánica (in Spanish). 49. SciELO. doi:10.18387/polibotanica.49.2. ISSN 1405-2768. Retrieved June 2, 2026.
  5. ↑ "Origin of adeno-". dictionary.com. Dictionary Media Group, Inc. Retrieved June 2, 2026.
  6. ↑ Bentham, Georgius (1840). Plantas Hartwegianas: imprimis mexicanas adjectis nonnullis Grahamianis enumerat novasque (in Latin and English). London, United Kingdom: Horticultural Society of London. p. 41.
  7. ↑ Hinojosa-Espinosa, Oscar; Schiavinato, Darío Javier (August 2022). "Phylogeny of marigolds (Tagetes L., Tageteae) based on ITS sequences" (PDF). Capitulum. 2 (1). The International Compositae Alliance: 38–49. doi:10.53875/capitulum.02.1.03. Retrieved June 2, 2026.
  8. ↑ Strother, John L. "Tagetes Linnaeus. In Flora of North America North of Mexico (FNA)". St. Louis, MO & Harvard University Herbaria, Cambridge, MA, USA: New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press via eFloras.org. Retrieved June 3, 2026.
  9. ↑ "Prunus persica (L.) Batsch". Plants of the World Online. United Kingdom: Royal Botanic Gardens Kew. Retrieved June 3, 2026.
  10. ↑ Chatfield, Jim (May 5, 2017). "Peaches Are From China". Buckeye Yard & Garden Online. Ohio, USA: Ohio State University. Retrieved June 3, 2026.
  11. ↑ "Origin of folium". dictionary.com. Dictionary Media Group, Inc. Retrieved June 3, 2026.
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