Pericón

Tagetes lucida is a perennial plant native to Mexico and Central America, used as a medicinal plant and a culinary herb. Its leaves smell of tarragon with hints of anise, and the nursery trade in North America sells it as a tarragon substitute. In late summer it bears clusters of small golden-yellow flower heads. The Aztecs used it in a ritual incense known as yauhtli, and it was dedicated to the rain god Tlāloc. The Nahua use it in rituals called limpias for people struck by lightning, rubbing the plant on the body to cleanse the aftereffects. It is reported that the Huichol of Mexico smoke it with Nicotiana rustica as an entheogen, and that it is sometimes smoked alone as a hallucinogen. The Maya used it as an additive in tobacco mixtures. The Aztecs also put it in the drink chocolatl. Today it is made into a tea for the common cold, intestinal gas and diarrhoea, and the flowers give a yellow dye.