Desert Marigold

The desert-marigold is an annual or short-lived perennial, generally 10 to 30 inches tall with a basal rosette of one- to four-inch long, pinnate wooly, or hairy, leaves. Hairs are an important desert plant adaptation because they both increase light reflection, resulting in lower leaf temperatures, and they block ultraviolet light.

Single, one- to two-inch wide flower heads grow on the end of stems up to one foot above the leaves. Both rays (34 to 55) and disks (more than 100) are yellow. Rays are three-lobed. Birds such as black-throated sparrows consume the desert-marigold’s pale tan seeds in fall.