Cosmos (plant)

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Cosmos
Cosmos bipinnatus, a wild Cosmos (9461227273).jpg
C. bipinnatus wild in Oaxaca, Mexico
Correo - Cadillo (Cosmos sulphureus) (15183920495).jpg
C. sulphureus
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Asterids
Order: Asterales
Family: Asteraceae
Subfamily: Asteroideae
Tribe: Coreopsideae
Genus: Cosmos
Cav. [1] [2]
Synonyms [3]
  • CosmeaWilld.
  • AdenolepisLess.
  • Cosmos sect. EucosmosSherff
  • CosmusPers.

Cosmos is a genus, with the same common name of cosmos, consisting of flowering plants in the daisy family. [4] [5]

Contents

Name

The generic name Cosmos derives either from the Greek κόσμος (cosmos) '(ordered) world' – in reference to the neat, orderly arrangement of the floral structures [6] – or the Greek κόσμημα (kósmima) 'jewel' – in reference to the jewel-like colors of the capitula (composite flowers). [7]

Description

Cosmos are herbaceous perennial plants or annual plants growing 0.3–2 metres (1–6+1⁄2 ft) tall. The leaves are simple, pinnate, or bipinnate, and arranged in opposite pairs. The flowers are produced in a capitulum with a ring of broad ray florets and a center of disc florets; flower color varies noticeably between the different species. The genus includes several ornamental plants popular in gardens. Numerous hybrids and cultivars have been selected and named.

Species

Kew's Plants of the World Online accepts 35 species, [1] with the Compositae Working Group listing two more. [3]

Distribution

Cosmos species are native to scrub and meadowland in the Americas, from Colorado and Missouri in the United States, extending south through Mexico (where highest species diversity occurs, with 33 of the 35 species) and Central America to South America as far south as northern Argentina. [1]

One species, C. bipinnatus , is naturalized across much of the eastern U.S. and eastern Canada. [8] The genus is also widespread over the high eastern plains of South Africa, where it was introduced via contaminated horsefeed during the Anglo-Boer War. [9]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 "Cosmos Cav". Plants of the World Online. 2012-09-10. Retrieved 2025-05-10.
  2. ↑ "Genus Cosmos Cav". Germplasm Resources Information Network. United States Department of Agriculture. 1998-09-07. Archived from the original on 2015-09-24. Retrieved 2011-02-13.
  3. 1 2 Compositae Working Group (CWG). "Cosmos Cav." Global Compositae Database. Retrieved 2023-05-17.
  4. ↑ Cavanilles, Antonio José. 1791. Icones et Descriptiones Plantarum 1(1): 9–10, pl. 14
  5. ↑ Tropicos, Cosmos Cav.
  6. ↑ Harvesting History https://harvesting-history.com/cosmos/#:~:text=The%20name%2C%20Cosmos%2C%20comes%20from,arrangement%20of%20the%20plant's%20petals. Retrieved at 23.02 on Saturday 27/7/24.
  7. ↑ The joy of plants https://www.thejoyofplants.co.uk/cosmos Retrieved at 23.19 on Saturday 27/7/24.
  8. ↑ Biota of North America Program 2013 county distribution maps
  9. ↑ Sandys, Celia (2009). Chasing Churchill: The Travels of Winston Churchill. Hachette UK. p. 92. ISBN   978-0786740154. The South African Light Horse, having no baggage train and living largely off the country, were able to range widely across Natal. How widely can be seen from the spread of the beautiful pink cosmos flower, a native of Argentina which was imported into South Africa in the British Army's horse fodder. Just as cairns on the battlefields mark where soldiers fell, so their route is marked by the pink swathes of cosmos. As my children picked bunches of these lovely flowers for me I wondered if the seeds from which they originated had germinated in the belly of my grandfather's horse as he had ridden that way.
  10. ↑ Christopher Eby (22 August 2025). "Villa Giardino, Argentina, Adopts Its First Official Flag". The Flag Chronicle. Retrieved 3 September 2025.
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