Garden Plants - Marigold

The Marigold, bright but humble garden flower, is another one that has a complicated name history. To start with, we're talking here about the tagetes family, not the calendula. The common name comes from Middle English where mari = Mary, and is descended ultimately from Greek Maria. Similarly it uses the Old English golde = akin to gold, which is sophisticated, as gold without the e meant actually made of gold in Old English, so white trash rap band 'Goldy Looking Chain' are simply tapping into our ancient language roots!

The botanical genus name Tagetes is in reference to a Roman deity, Tages. The species name lucidus = bright because of the bright orange flowers.

The earliest use of marigolds was by the Aztec people who attributed magical, religious and medicinal properties to marigolds. The first recorded use of marigolds is in the De La Crus-Badiano Aztec Herbal of 1552. This Herbal records the use of marigolds for treatment of hiccups, being struck by lightening (very useful I'm sure!), or 'for one who wishes to cross a river or water safely'. It is also said to deter some common insect pests and tagetes are often used in companion planting.

In addition, the bright orange and red shades of marigolds are seen everywhere in the daily life of the Indian sub-continent where the flowers are used in all kinds of ceremonies including weddings. They are made into garlands and are offered to the gods and honoured guests, or used to decorate the biers of the dead. They stud cow-dung balls which are used to decorate rice-powder drawings on bare earth or pavements and in the traditional craft forms of eastern India they are dried and powdered to produce a yellow colour used to decorate village homes. Essential oils are also extracted from marigolds for perfumery.

Garden Marigold photograph by audreyjm529, used under a creative commons attribution licence