Tagetes minuta

Native from Brazil to southern South America, this strongly aromatic annual herb in the daisy family can reach about 8 feet tall. Its dark green leaves are deeply divided into narrow, toothed segments. Dense clusters of slender flower heads carry tiny cream or pale yellow rays around yellow centers. It often grows on cultivated and disturbed ground. In Peru, its leaves are used as a seasoning in sauces such as ocopa and in pachamanca, a traditional earth-oven meal. It has naturalized in Colombia and is invasive in Brisbane, Australia, where it competes with native vegetation. Photographed in the department of Risaralda, Colombia.