Hardiness zones:
Sunset 11-13 as winter annual
USDA 9-10 (arid zones only)

Landscape Use: Xeric annual or perennial used best as a low growing accent plant, dry garden bedding plant, native wildflower gardens and native landscapes, Sonoran Desert native habitat restoration, or cut flowers

Form & Character: Herbaceous perennial, free flowering, light and airy, informal, naturalistic

Growth Habit: Rosette forming, tufted with flower peduncles to 20"

Foliage/texture: Desert  marigold grows basal foliage that is pinntified, highly tomentose and gray. Occasionally leaves are found along the flower peduncle; medium fine texture, but more coarse if more water is applied.

Flowers & fruits: Copious yellow ray flowers to 2" in diameter, each on a peduncle stalk, as many as 20 to 50 flowers per plant most of year

Seasonal color: Yellow in late winter through mid-spring. Sporadic blooms rest of year, especially when around supplemental water.

Temperature: Will tolerate frost, fades in vigor when temperatures regularly exceed 95^oF

Light: Full sun

Soil: Well drained soil is an absolute must!

Watering: Little to none if enough winter rainfall occurs. Excessive irrigation causes rank vegetative growth and leads to weak, elongated, limp, flower stalks; withholding water in summer induces seasonal dormancy.

Pruning: None, except to remove spent flowers if you're a landscape neat freak.

Propagation: Seed

Disease and pests: Root rot in poorly drained soils

Additional comments: Desert marigold is an Arizona desert short-lived perennial whose winter-spring blooming period is typically extended in urban settings because of increased availability of water.  Desert marigold can readily reseed and naturalize in urban Phoenix landscapes; after all, desert marigold is a native Sonoran Desert herb.

Baileya: after Jacob Whitman Bailey (1811-1857), early American microscopist.