Aztec Marigold

Tagetes erecta, the Aztec marigold, is a flowering plant native to Mexico and Central America, though it is often called the African marigold. It is a herbaceous annual or perennial between 30 and 110 centimetres tall. The Aztecs gathered the wild plant and cultivated it for medicinal, ceremonial and decorative purposes, and the Spanish later took it to Europe. The Spanish name cempasúchil comes from the Nahuatl cempohualxochitl, "twenty flower"; twenty was the base of the Aztec counting system, so the name stands for completion. The page notes that the Nahuatl name covered several Tagetes species. In Mexico the flower is used at the Día de Muertos celebration every 2 November, which is why it is also called the flower of the dead. In Honduras, water infused with its essential oil is used to wash corpses, and the flower is commonly planted in cemeteries. The most intense orange flowers have the highest carotenoid content.