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Tagetes tenuifolia; photograph (c) Neptalí Ramírez Marcial, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Neptalí Ramírez Marcial, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2026-05-24

Tagetes tenuifolia Cav.

Signet marigold; Slender-leaf marigold; Striped Mexican marigold; Petite marigold

Asteraceae · Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast +13

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Tagetes tenuifolia, photograph (c) José Javier Barrios Flores, some rights reserved (CC BY)Tagetes tenuifolia, photograph (c) Neptalí Ramírez Marcial, some rights reserved (CC BY)Tagetes tenuifolia, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedTagetes tenuifolia, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedTagetes tenuifolia, photograph (c) Lilian Molina, some rights reserved (CC BY)Tagetes tenuifolia, photograph (c) Lilian Molina, some rights reserved (CC BY) 79 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
1.1°C
Record low -5.2 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
26°C
Apr and May at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
990mm
7 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
31–46DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Wet summers: the rain comes June to September, read as a summer growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Tagetes tenuifolia, the signet marigold, golden marigold or lemon marigold, is a North American species of the wild marigold in the family Asteraceae.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Tagetes tenuifolia", CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the genus · Tagetes

Tagetes is a genus of 50 species of annual or perennial, mostly herbaceous plants in the family Asteraceae. They are among several groups of plants known in English as marigolds. The genus Tagetes was formally named by Carl Linnaeus in 1753. More on Wikipedia ›

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Tagetes", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (751 mm of 982 mm) falls in June to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 18.0 °C against a yearly mean of 16.7 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: December to March.

Rain

982 mm in the median year at the habitat, 751 mm of it June to September. Wettest month July at 204 mm, driest month December at 9 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 602 mm to 1,787 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 990 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 982 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 31 to 46 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 26, the highest 90th-percentile month 48).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 1.1 °C, the absolute minimum -5.2 °C, 82 frost nights in 44 years, 1.9 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 31.5 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 7.2 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range 3.9 °C to 14.1 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 25.8 °C in April (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 1.1 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 49 to 66% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light. CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected +42 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Tagetes tenuifolia through the yearWarmest months April and May, mean daily high 26 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 7.2 °C; 982 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.-10°0°10°20°30°40°frost31.5° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-5.2° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 31–46RH 49–66%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 490 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C20 / 17–2622 / 19–2824 / 21–3026 / 22–3226 / 22–3223 / 20–2922 / 19–2822 / 19–2822 / 19–2721 / 18–2721 / 18–2720 / 18–26
Night °C7 / 4–148 / 5–159 / 6–1611 / 8–1713 / 9–1913 / 10–1913 / 10–1813 / 10–1813 / 10–1811 / 8–179 / 6–168 / 5–15
Rain mm16 / 7–3613 / 7–2911 / 5–2825 / 6–5364 / 23–157178 / 102–322204 / 103–314190 / 100–316179 / 104–33276 / 44–16217 / 10–569 / 5–40
DLI32 / 28–3538 / 33–3944 / 39–4546 / 41–4844 / 39–4838 / 33–4138 / 33–4137 / 33–4033 / 29–3633 / 29–3632 / 28–3431 / 26–33
RH %53 / 49–6252 / 47–6049 / 44–5850 / 43–5954 / 47–6362 / 56–6864 / 59–6964 / 59–6966 / 61–7062 / 56–6857 / 51–6555 / 49–63
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 490 grid cells holding the 709 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 1453:1648 (17.325, -97.575). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -5.2 °C, 1st-percentile night 1.1 °C, 99th-percentile day 31.5 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 490 distinct grid cells holding 709 of the 709 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1453:1648 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 17.50_-97.500, lapse-corrected +42 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 2215 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeMexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru · introduced: Great Britain, Germany, Poland, France, Romania, Yugoslavia, Belarus, Baltic States, Krym, Ukraine, Tadzhikistan, Nepal, Myanmar, Vietnam, Jawa · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker19.257, -99.149 · in the densest population, 353 records (37% of those in range)
Kew's description“annual” · “subtropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 947 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 709 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 673 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 24 km away. 559 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 238 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 947 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Tagetes tenuifolia, photograph 1did not loadTagetes tenuifolia, photograph 2did not loadTagetes tenuifolia, photograph 3did not loadTagetes tenuifolia, photograph 4did not loadTagetes tenuifolia, photograph 5did not loadTagetes tenuifolia, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) José Javier Barrios Flores, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Neptalí Ramírez Marcial, some rights reserved (CC BY); author not stated, no rights reserved · CC0 (2); (c) Lilian Molina, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2).

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Passiflora subpeltata Passiflora subpeltata White passionflower Photo: CC0, author not statedFraxinus uhdei Fraxinus uhdei Shamel ash Photo: CC BY, Juan Carlos Caicedo HernándezQuercus castanea Quercus castanea Fagaceae Photo: CC BY, Erick Vélez SánchezPseuderanthemum praecox Pseuderanthemum praecox Night and afternoon Photo: CC BY, Neptalí Ramírez MarcialCosmos crithmifolius Cosmos crithmifolius Asteraceae Photo: CC BY, Carlos MartínezTillandsia bourgaei Tillandsia bourgaei Bromeliaceae Photo: CC BY, Alexis López Hernández

Other Tagetes 12 in the reference

Tagetes erecta Tagetes erecta African marigold Photo: CC BY-SA, lisongTagetes filifolia Tagetes filifolia Irish-lace marigold Photo: CC0, author not statedTagetes foetidissima Tagetes foetidissima Asteraceae Photo: CC BY, Isaac KroneTagetes lemmonii Tagetes lemmonii Lemmon's marigold Photo: CC BY, Sue CarnahanTagetes lucida Tagetes lucida Sweetscented marigold Photo: CC0, author not statedTagetes lunulata Tagetes lunulata Red-crescent marigold Photo: CC BY, Alexis López HernándezTagetes micrantha Tagetes micrantha Licorice marigold Photo: CC BY, Andrew TreeTagetes minuta Tagetes minuta Muster John Henry Photo: CC BY, Adrienne van den BeemtTagetes multiflora Tagetes multiflora Asteraceae Photo: CC BY, Staci OréTagetes nelsonii Tagetes nelsonii Asteraceae Photo: CC BY, Neptalí Ramírez MarcialTagetes terniflora Tagetes terniflora Asteraceae Photo: CC0, author not statedTagetes zypaquirensis Tagetes zypaquirensis Asteraceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Ángela Patricia Rojas Cortés

Names & registers

Also known as Tagetes ernstii; Tagetes jaliscana; Tagetes jaliscensis var. minor; Tagetes macroglossa; Tagetes microglossa and 4 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Asteraceae
Described by
Cav.
Native to
Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf +12
Wild records
947 in range · 673 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-22
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 101 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (73 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 12 at a herbarium, 16 at a zoo; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 17.50_-97.500, lapse-corrected +42 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-22
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 93 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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