Orange cosmos

Cosmos sulphureus, sulphur cosmos or orange cosmos, is a half-hardy annual herb in the Asteraceae family native to Mexico, Central America, and northern South America, and widely naturalised throughout the tropics and subtropics. Plants grow from 0.3 to 2 metres tall on slender, erect, branching stems. The leaves are opposite, two- to three-times pinnately divided into narrow, lance-shaped lobes that give the foliage a feathery aspect. Flower heads are borne singly on long peduncles and measure three to six centimetres across; they comprise about eight broad ray florets in shades of golden yellow, orange, or red-orange surrounding a central disc of yellow to orange tubular florets. Fruits are slender, dark, beaked achenes lacking a pappus or with two to three short awns. The species favours sunny, open ground on alkaline soils and is widely cultivated as an ornamental and as a source of orange-yellow dye for textiles.