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Cosmos sulphureus
Asteraceae FAMILY

Cosmos sulphureus

Cosmos sulphureus

Edibility
0/5
Medicinal
2/5

Safety & Hazards

None known

Cultivation Details

HabitAnnual
Growth—

Grows best in a sunny position[1]. Succeeds in most well-drained soils, though in very fertile soils the plant grows much taller and tends to flop over[1]. Succeeds in poor soils and in dry soils[1]. The plant often self-sows very freely, particularly if the seed falls on bare ground. It can behave as a weed, though it tends not to invade undisturbed areas[2, 1]. Removing the flowers as soon as they are past their best, and before the seed starts to form, will greatly prolong the flowering season[1].

Propagation

Seed - sow in situ. Cite as: Tropical Plants Database, Ken Fern. tropical.theferns.info. 2026-02-20. <tropical.theferns.info/viewtropical.php?id=Cosmos+sulphureus>

Pollinators

Bees, Butterflies

References

  1. [1]KemperCentreForHomeGardeningPlantFinder — Missouri Botanical Garden · http://www.mobot.org/gardeninghelp/plantfinder/ ↩︎Basic cultivation details, plant uses, habitat etc for several thousand species of plants, mainly from the temperate zone.
  2. [2]Protabase - Plant Resources of Tropical Africa. — http://www.prota.org ↩︎An excellent on-line database with detailed information on over 3,200 species of useful plants of Africa.
  3. [3]Flowers of India — http://www.flowersofindia.net/ ↩︎A wed site of native Indian plants, plus cultivated and naturalized species. It has good quality photos and terse details on more than 3,000 species and cultivars.
  4. [4]Philippine Medicinal Plants — http://www.stuartxchange.org/CompleteList.html ↩︎A lovely site, giving brief details on the medicinal uses of several hundred (over 400 at the last count) plants in the Philippines, plus a picture of each plant.
  5. [5]Flora of Guatemala — Standley P.C. & J. A. Steyermark · 1946 - 1976 · http://www.archive.org/ ↩︎A superb reference, though somewhat dated. Gives lots of plant uses as well as information on plant habit and habitat. The entire flora (13 volumes) can now be downloaded from http://www.archive.org/