The Difference Between French Marigold and Pot Marigold (Calendula Officinalis)

Calendula

I love marigolds. They're cheerful, hardy and colorful. As herbs go, when I find one with relatively large, appealing flowers, it's a keeper. There's some confusion where marigold is concerned, though.

This happens with plants from time to time, which is one reason every plant has a specific scientific (Latin) name. Depending on its geographical origins, a plant may have a dozen or more common names, so common names can be -- confusing. Many plants can have the same name, whether they look alike or not.

The Difference Between Calendula and French Marigold

In the case of marigold, pot marigold (Calendula), a native to Europe, and French marigold (Tagetes), an American native in the same family as the daisy, are very different plants. Calendula is edible and often appears on lists of attractive edible flowers. *Most French marigold varieties are not edible.

Calendula is also a common herbal remedy used in skin preparations (among other uses). French marigold is a nice companion plant in the garden, makes an effective bug spray and looks lovely in a border. It doesn't have the herbal range of calendula. Depending on the cultivars involved, both pot marigold and French marigold can look pretty similar.

Calendula

If you're filling a flat with spring flowers at your local nursery and come upon a display of wonderful plants marked "MARIGOLDS," you're probably looking at French marigolds (Tagetes).  They're very popular annuals in gardens across the country. They aren't fussy and bloom throughout the summer months. There are also many French marigold cultivars that can look like anything from intricate lemon yellow puff balls to russet daisies.

Your best bet if you're looking for pot marigold is to search for it by its scientific name, Calendula Officinalis. In all likelihood, if your nursery carries it, you'll find it in a small display of herbal or specialty plants.

How to Grow Marigold Calendula

Calendula is also an easy to grow annual. It reaches a height of about 18 inches and has longish, medium green, slightly hairy leaves. Although you can purchase plants, pot marigold is easy to direct sow from seed in spring after the last threat of frost has passed.

Provide calendula with a sunny location and soil that drains well. Although it's tolerant of neglect, when you fertilize it as you would other spring annuals, you'll have brighter, more prolific blooms. Calendula is somewhat drought tolerant, but if you experience punishing summers in your area, provide plants with a little afternoon shade and a layer of mulch. Dead-head plants regularly (remove spent flowers) to encourage flower production. Once calendula is established in the garden, it self-seeds readily and comes back year after year.

Calendula

When thickly planted, marigold looks attractive and cheerful. It is also available in multiple shades from buttery yellow to dark russet, and with somewhat different petal configurations depending on the cultivar. Online suppliers also offer pot marigold "variety" seed packs with multiple cultivars represented in one packet.

Using Marigold Calendula

Calendula was named for the Virgin Mary, and was once commonly dried and added to winter dishes to give them color and enhanced aroma. It was often added fresh to salads, too. This was at a time when manor house salads could number 100 ingredients or more. It's also a culinary coloring agent. A calendula rinse will color Easter eggs and tint rice and mayonnaise an attractive yellow. It's sometimes called "poor man's saffron." Whole dried flowers retain much of their color, too, and look attractive in potpourri or added to decorative candles.

Medicinal Uses for Marigold Calendula

Calendula is an antibacterial, antiseptic and antifungal. It also has anti-inflammatory properties. You'll find it as an ingredient in herbal skin ointment recipes to treat:

• Dry skin (It makes a nice moisturizer.)
• Minor skin irritations
• Chapped lips (Tried this and it is great)
• Diaper rash
• Insect bites
• Eczema
• Sunburn

Although research is still ongoing, calendula has been used to treat conditions like fever, nosebleeds, varicose veins, muscle spasms and hemorrhoids, to name a few. At this writing, there isn't enough evidence for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services or the National Institutes of Health to rate its effectiveness in these treatments. Follow the links at the bottom of this page for more information about other medicinal applications for calendula.

Even though calendula is considered safe, it is contraindicated if you are pregnant, breastfeeding, sensitive to plants in the Asteraceae/Compositae family or are currently taking sedative medications like CNS depressants. For updated information about the safety of herbal preparations, please visit MedLine Plus (a service of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services) or WebMd.

If you think you'd like to make a calendula moisturizer or lip balm, the recipes for both are easy and fun. (I'll walk you through them in an upcoming post.) You might want to try growing your own calendula this season and then supplement your harvest with purchased (dried) calendula flowers, if necessary. If you're just getting into making herbal remedies, dried marigold and dried lavender buds are two versatile ingredients you can use in lots of preparations.

French Marigold

I'll leave you with a quick literary reference. Marigold petals open at sunrise and close at dusk, a habit Shakespeare describes in A Winter's Tale:

    The Marigold that goes to bed wi' the sun
    And with him rises weeping.


*French marigold has a few edible cultivars. If the French marigold you have in your garden -- or are interested in planting -- is not marketed or labeled as edible, then it is probably not safe for human consumption. Don't confuse it with edible calendula.

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Reference:



Clevely, Andi, Katherine Richmond, Sallie Morris, Leslie Mackley. "Cooking With Herbs and Spices. Hermes House. 2003.

 Discovery Health. "Calendula Herbal Remedies." Brett, Jennifer, N.D.  http://health.howstuffworks.com/wellness/natural-medicine/herbal-remedies/calendula-herbal-remedies.htm>

Garden Guides. "Calendula Flower Information." http://www.gardenguides.com/87509-calendula-flower-information.html

Houdret, Jessica. "Practical Herb Garden." Hermes House. 2002.
MedLine Plus. "Calendula." Natural Medicines Comprehensive Database. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. National Institutes of Health. http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/druginfo/natural/235.html

WebMD. "Calendula Overview." http://www.webmd.com/vitamins-supplements/ingredientmono-235-CALENDULA.aspx?activeIngredientId=235&activeIngredientName=CALENDULA

Photos

Photo 1 - http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7f/Calendula_H.JPGBy
Wouter Hagens (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ACalendula_H.JPG

Photo 2 - http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f7/Calendula_K.JPG
By Wouter Hagens (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ACalendula_K.JPG

Photo 3 - http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d2/Calendula_E.JPG
By Wouter Hagens (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ACalendula_E.JPG

Photo 4 - http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/98/Calendula_officinalis_Sturm13064.jpg
By Johann Georg Sturm (Painter: Jacob Sturm) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ACalendula_officinalis_Sturm13064.jpg

Photo 5 - By Andrew Bossi (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-2.5 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5)], via Wikimedia Commons http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/92/1316_-_Zell_am_See_-_Flower.JPG http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3A1316_-_Zell_am_See_-_Flower.JPG