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 ntroduced |
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Common name: Chocolate Cosmos
Botanical name: Cosmos atrosanguineus Family: Asteraceae (Sunflower family)
Relatively unknown before, this tender
Mexican perennial is now a fashionable summer highlight in warm borders,
as much for its chocolate scent as for the dusky brownish-red blooms. It is a
herbaceous perennial plant growing to 40-60 cm tall, with a fleshy tuberous
root. The leaves are 7-15 cm long, pinnate, with leaflets 2-5 cm long. The
flowers are produced in a capitulum 3-4.5 cm diameter, dark red to maroon-dark
brown, with a ring of six to ten (usually eight) broad ray florets and a
center of disc florets; they have a light vanillin fragrance (like many
chocolates), which becomes more noticeable as the summer day wears on. It is
not self-fertile, so no viable seeds are produced, and the plant has to be
propagated by division of the tubers.
| Photographed in
Masihgarh Church, New Delhi. |
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