Cosmos caudatus

Cosmos caudatus

The king’s salad or wild cosmos, Spanish needle (Cosmos caudatus Kunth, 1818) is a herbaceous species belonging to the Asteraceae family.

Systematic –
From a systematic point of view it belongs to:
Eukaryota domain,
Kingdom Plantae,
Division Magnoliophyta,
Class Magnoliopsida,
Order Asteridae,
Suborder Asterales,
Asteraceae family
Subfamily Asteroideae
Tribe Coreopsideae
Cosmos genre,
Species C. caudatus.
The terms are synonymous:
– Bidens artemisiaefolia subsp. caudata (Kunth) Kuntze;
– Bidens artemisiaefolia var. caudatus (Kunth) Kuntze;
– Bidens artemisiifolia f. rubra (Kuntze) Kuntze;
– Bidens artemisiifolia subsp. caudata (Kunth) Kuntze, 1891;
– Bidens artemisiifolia var. caudata (Kunth) Kuntze;
– Bidens artemisiifolia var. intermedia Kuntze;
– Bidens artemisiifolia var. rosea Kuntze;
– Bidens artemisiifolia var. rubra Kuntze;
– Bidens berteriana Spreng.;
– Bidens berteroana Spreng.;
– Bidens carnea Heer;
– Bidens caudata (Kunth) Sch.Bip.;
– Coreopsis coronata Bertero;
– Coreopsis coronata Bertero ex Steud.;
– Coreopsis gracilis Blanco;
– Cosmea caudata (Kunth) Spreng.;
– Cosmos caudatus var. caudatus;
– Cosmos pacificus var. chiapensis Melchert;
– Cosmus caudatus H.B.K.

Etymology –
The term Cosmos comes from the Greek “κόσμος” (kosmos), meaning ornament.
The specific epithet caudatus comes from the Latin “caudatus, a, um”, that is, caudate, equipped with a tail.

Geographic Distribution and Habitat –
Cosmos caudatus is a plant native to Latin America, particularly Belize, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico (Chiapas, Michoacan, Sinaloa, Tabasco, Tamaulipas, Veracruz and Yucatan), Nicaragua, Panama and Venezuela and the West Indies, although it has naturalized in tropical parts of Asia, Africa, and Australia.
Its natural habitat is that of humid prairies while in areas where it has naturalized as a weed, it is found in desolate places and along roadsides.

Description –
Cosmos caudatus is an annual, herbaceous plant with an erect and branched habit that grows between 0.3 and 2.5 meters, with glabrous or bristly stems.
The leaves are borne by 1-7 cm long petioles; they are generally opposite, have narrow and deep segments, 5-20 cm long, with lanceolate segments with pointed apex, 0.3-1 cm wide, light green in colour.
The inflorescences are found on a 5-28 cm long peduncle, with generally solitary, terminal flower heads, about 4 cm in diameter; these are made up of numerous sessile flowers inserted in a spiral on a rounded base; the receptacle is surrounded by a bell-shaped casing, 0.5-1.5 cm in diameter, made up of a series of oblong-lanceolate bracts 0.7-1 cm long.
The external flowers of the ring, or ray flowers, are usually 8 in number; these have an oblanceolate corolla with a tridentate apex, 1-1.8 cm long, white, pink or purple in colour; these flowers are sterile and perform the function of attracting pollinating insects like the petals of a single flower.
The flowers inside the ring, or disc flowers, are bisexual, have a funnel-shaped corolla with a tube 0.8-1 cm long and 5 lobes, about 2 mm long, yellow in colour.
The fruits are linear cypsiles with a quadrangular section; they are blackish in colour, 1-3.5 cm long, of which 1-1.5 cm consists of a pointed extension of brown colour, with pappus absent or made up of 2-3 thin divergent and retroflexed scales, 3-5 mm long , which adhere to animal hair, favoring its dispersion.

Cultivation –
Cosmos caudatus is an annual to perennial herb that has the potential to become a cultivated vegetable, but its edible leaves are currently harvested from the wild for local use.
As night falls the leaves fold to close the terminal buds while the plant literally sleeps.
However, in many tropical and subtropical countries, where the species has been introduced, this plant has escaped cultivation and become a weed.
Due to its morphological characteristics it can be considered an ornamental plant of easy cultivation and fast growth which, despite being native to tropical and subtropical regions, can be cultivated, being annual, in a wide variety of climates, from warm temperate to continental, where it is used, together with its varieties, in group gardens or for borders, even mixed.
For its cultivation it requires full sun and draining soils, preferably fertile, with moderate watering in climates with dry summers; It also adapts well to pot cultivation.
Propagation occurs easily by seed; this should be sown in spring in a fertile, draining substrate, kept humid at a temperature of 20-22 °C. The first flowering occurs approximately 2 months after germination.

Customs and Traditions –
Cosmos caudatus is a plant known by various common names; among these we remember: cosmos, Spanish needle, wild cosmos (English); cosmos sauvage (French); kenikir (Javanese); hulam raja, ulan raja (Malay); daoruang-phama, khamhae (Thai); rau sao nhái (Vietnamese); chactsul, estrella del mar (Yucatán, Quintana Roo); cambray, cambray rojo (Honduras, El Salvador); mozote-doradilla (El Salvador); flor de muerto (Costa Rica).
In some South-East Asian countries, where it has naturalized, particularly in Malaysia, its leaves, rich in minerals, especially calcium, and vitamins B1, B2 and C, are highly appreciated for their particular flavor and consumed raw in salads or added to other foods for flavor.
In Indonesian and Malaysian cuisine the leaves of this plant are used for salad. In Brunei it was usually served with sambal (chilli paste) along with the local cuisine, ambuyat. It was brought by the Spanish from Latin America, via the Philippines, to the rest of Southeast Asia. Ulam, a Malay word used to describe a preparation that combines food, medicine and beauty, is a very popular Malay herbal salad that is served throughout the country from major hotels for tourists to lunch or dinner buffets for the general public local.
They also became part of their folk medicine as remedies for various pathologies. Laboratory studies have highlighted the presence of numerous bioactive compounds with high antioxidant activity.

Preparation Method –
Cosmos caudatus is a plant that is used in the edible food sector.
The young leaves or tops are eaten raw or cooked; these can be added to salads or stews.
For this reason it is a plant with good potential to be used as a vegetable although, however, in some areas it tends to become invasive.
In countries where it is naturally present it becomes part of some medicinal uses, especially due to the presence of bioactive compounds with high antioxidant activity.

Guido Bissanti

Sources
– Acta Plantarum – Flora of the Italian Regions.
– Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
– GBIF, the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.
– Useful Tropical Plants Database.
– Conti F., Abbate G., Alessandrini A., Blasi C. (ed.), 2005. An annotated checklist of the Italian vascular flora, Palombi Editore.
– Pignatti S., 1982. Flora d’Italia, Edagricole, Bologna.
– Treben M., 2000. Health from the Lord’s Pharmacy, Advice and experiences with medicinal herbs, Ennsthaler Editore.

Photo source:
– https://inaturalist-open-data.s3.amazonaws.com/photos/181904771/original.jpeg
– https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/94/Cosmos_caudatus_Blanco2.287-cropped.jpg

Attention: Pharmaceutical applications and food uses are indicated for informational purposes only, they do not represent in any way a medical prescription; we therefore decline any responsibility for their use for healing, aesthetic or food purposes.