Leaf
Salicyna, Wikimedia · CC BY-SA 4.0
Garden cosmos
Cosmos bipinnatus Cav.
Also known as: Cosmos, Mexican aster
Family: Asteraceae
60 cm to 1.5 m tall
Grown in beds and borders, poor to moderately rich soils
Flowering: July – October
Full sun
Not hardy, annual plant sown every year
❓ How do you recognise this plant?
Cosmos owes its name to the Greek word kosmos meaning harmonious order — the Spanish botanists who discovered it in Mexico found the regular arrangement of its petals almost perfectly beautiful.
🍃 Leaves
Finely divided, thread-like, light green
🌸 Flowers
Large single flower head, pink, white or purple, with a yellow centre, borne on long slender stems
🍎 Fruits
Long, thin achene
🪵 Bark
Thin, branched, upright herbaceous stem
🗺️ Distribution
Native to Mexico; very widely grown in France as an annual bedding flower
🐝 Value for pollinators
Large flower heads very rich in honey, among the annual flowers most visited by bees and butterflies
✂️ Horticultural uses
Annual bedding plant with abundant, airy flowering, very easy to grow, excellent in bouquets
⚠️ Possible toxicity
No known toxicity
🌿 Other Asteraceae to discover
ℹ️ Educational profile — do not use it to judge whether a plant is edible or safe.
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