Tagetes

Tagetes is a genus of 50 species of annual or perennial, mostly herbaceous plants, family Asteraceae, native to Central and Southern Mexico and several other Latin American countries, though some species have become naturalized around the world. Among several groups of plants known in English as marigolds, the genus includes African marigolds, cultivars of Tagetes erecta, French marigolds, hybrids of Tagetes patula, and signet marigolds, derived from Tagetes tenuifolia; the plants were originally called cempohualxochitl by the Nahua people, and the genus was formally named by Carl Linnaeus in 1753. One species, Tagetes minuta, is considered a noxious invasive species in some areas.