Marigolds in Farmstead World — crop in the game, and what it is on a real farm.
The marigold is a quick, golden-orange annual in the aster family, native to Mexico and Central America, where it has been grown for centuries as a flower of celebration and remembrance.
Growers plant it beside vegetables because its roots and scent discourage nematodes and some insects, and its petals yield a yellow-orange dye for cloth and a pigment used in feed.
Marigolds of the genus Tagetes are native to Mexico and Central America. The Aztecs grew them as cempasúchil, the flower of the dead, and the custom of heaping marigolds on altars for Day of the Dead survives today. Spanish traders carried them to Europe, where the French and African marigolds took their names.
Marigolds are fast, undemanding annuals that thrive in sun and ordinary soil, and they bloom until frost. Growers plant them between vegetable rows because some marigolds, especially French marigolds, release compounds from their roots that suppress root-knot nematodes. The evidence for pests above ground is less consistent: the scent can confuse some insects, but marigolds work best as one part of a rotation, not a cure-all.
Marigolds are sold as cut flowers and garlands, and their petals yield a yellow-to-orange dye for cotton and wool when set with a mordant such as alum. Marigold extract rich in lutein is also added to poultry feed to deepen egg yolks and skin.