Differences between cosmos and marigold

In the golden autumn season, the best activity is to enjoy chrysanthemums in the cool and refreshing weather. There are more than 30,000 types of chrysanthemums, with different colors and shapes, which is the most beautiful scenery in autumn. Both cosmos and marigold are plants of the Asteraceae family, and they were also introduced from Mexico. In terms of shape and color, they are very similar. Many people don’t know how to distinguish cosmos and marigold. Let’s take a look at them from these aspects.

Difference Between Marigold and Tagetes

1. Differences between plants

Compared with marigold, cosmos is relatively short, its plants are generally only about 30 cm to 100 cm, while most marigolds are generally over 60 cm, basically around 60-100 cm. From the height of the plants, we can see the difference between cosmos and marigold, which is the most intuitive feature.

2. Differences in flower types

In addition to looking at the height of the plant, if we want to distinguish between marigolds and cosmos, we can also look at the flower shape of the two. The marigold plant is taller and its flowers are larger, with a flower disk diameter of about 6-8 cm, while the diameter of the cosmos flower is only about 3 to 5 cm. From the size of the flower, we can see the difference between cosmos and marigold.

In addition, the color of marigold flowers is generally solid without any patterns, while cosmos has spots. If we see an orange flower with orange spots on the petals, we can be sure that it is cosmos. If the color of marigold is orange, the whole flower will be orange without any spots.

3. The difference between leaves

In addition to the plants and flowers, we can also distinguish between marigolds and cosmos by the size of the leaves. Generally speaking, marigold leaves are very large, with the largest reaching ten centimeters. The leaves of cosmos are generally only about five centimeters. In general, whether it is the plant, flower or leaves, cosmos is smaller than marigold.