Cosmos (plant)

For other uses, see Cosmos (disambiguation).

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

Cosmos
C. bipinnatus wild in Oaxaca, Mexico
C. sulphureus
Scientific classification
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]
Cosmea Willd. Adenolepis Less. Cosmos sect. Eucosmos Sherff Cosmus Pers.

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 m (1 ft 0 in – 6 ft 7 in) 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.

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]

Species

Accepted species: 35 species are accepted by Kew's Plants of the World Online,^[1] with two more listed by the Compositae Working Group.^[3]

• Cosmos atrosanguineus (Hook.) Voss
• Cosmos bipinnatus Cav.
• Cosmos carvifolius Benth.
• Cosmos caudatus Kunth
• Cosmos concolor Sherff
• Cosmos crithmifolius Kunth
• Cosmos deficiens (Sherff) Melchert
• Cosmos diversifolius Otto ex Knowles & Westc.
• Cosmos herzogii Sherff (treated by POWO as Bidens herzogii (Sherff) D.J.N.Hind)^[1]
• Cosmos intercedens Sherff
• Cosmos jaliscensis Sherff
• Cosmos juxtlahuacensis Panero & Villaseñor
• Cosmos landii Sherff
• Cosmos linearifolius (Sch.Bip.) Hemsl.
• Cosmos longipetiolatus Melchert
• Cosmos mattfeldii Sherff
• Cosmos mcvaughii Sherff
• Cosmos microcephalus Sherff (unplaced by POWO)^[1]
• Cosmos modestus Sherff
• Cosmos montanus Sherff
• Cosmos nelsonii B.L.Rob. & Fernald
• Cosmos nitidus Paray
• Cosmos ochroleucoflorus Melchert
• Cosmos pacificus Melchert
• Cosmos palmeri B.L.Rob.
• Cosmos parviflorus (Jacq.) Pers.
• Cosmos peucedanifolius Wedd.
• Cosmos pringlei B.L.Rob. & Fernald
• Cosmos pseudoperfoliatus Art.Castro, Harker & Aarón Rodr.
• Cosmos purpureus (DC.) Benth. & Hook.f. ex Hemsl.
• Cosmos ramirezianus Art.Castro, Harker & Aarón Rodr.
• Cosmos scabiosoides Kunth
• Cosmos schaffneri Sherff
• Cosmos sessilis Sherff
• Cosmos sherffii Melchert
• Cosmos steenisiae Veldkamp
• Cosmos sulphureus Cav.

Naturalization

One species, C. bipinnatus, is naturalized across much of the eastern United States 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]

Gallery

• 
  Cosmos scabiosoides in Puebla, Mexico
• 
  C. sulphureus
• 
  Cosmos parviflorus in Colorado
• 
  Kerala
• 
  Old house in Japan
• 
  Korea
• 
  Cosmos atrosanguineus, the chocolate cosmos