Tagetes

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. Mainly native to Central and South America, a few species of Tagetes are native to more northerly regions, namely Arizona and New Mexico. The most widespread in our gardens: marigolds, Tagetes patula, and Indian roses, Tagetes erecta, are not native to India, but are thought to have come from the West Indies, formerly known as "the Indies".

Ritual plants used all over the world, Tagetes offer numerous medicinal qualities, and are mainly vulnerary, emmenagogue, diuretic, digestive, carotenic and anti-inflammatory.tic, digestive, carminative, antibacterial, antirheumatic, but also aphrodisiac and antherogenic - for Tagetes lucida - or anticancer - for Tagetes minuta. For a list of their many qualities, classified by species, see the article "Tagetes: medicinal, aphrodisiac and visionary plants" on our blog.