Tagetes are medicinal plants in the Asteraceae family and the Tageteae tribe. The Tagetes genus comprises around 55 species, half of which are perennials. The name Tagetes derives from the mythical Etruscan character Tages, a shaman prophet who taught humans the art of divination - including aruspicine, divination from animal entrails. Tagetes are thought to have originated mainly in Central and South America. A few species are native to more northerly regions, namely Arizona and New Mexico. The most widespread in our gardens today are the marigolds, Tagetespatula. Another well-known Tagetes is the Indian Rose, Tagetes erecta. Indian carnations and Indian roses, despite their names, are not native to India. They are so called because they are thought to have come from the West Indies, known as "les Indes"... It's hard to see how botanists would have called this plant "Indian" just because it came from the West Indies, when in fact it was discovered in Africa - and in Spanish "clavel de Moro", "carnation of the Moors"... Tagetes offer a wide range of medicinal qualities, mainly vulnerary, emmenagogue, diuretic, digestive, carminative, antibacterial, anti-rheumatic, but also aphrodisiac and antieogenic - in the case of Tagetes lucida - or anti-cancerous - in the case of Tagetes minuta... A list of their many qualities, classified by species, can be found in the article Les Tagètes: des plantes médicinales, aphrodisiaques et de vision, on our blog. They are also widely used in rituals all over the world.
