How to Grow Mexican Tarragon

How to Plant and Grow Mexican Tarragon Tagetes lucida

Fresh tarragon lovers in blistering hot regions often have to forgo growing their favorite herb.

French tarragon simply doesn’t thrive in places where it gets really hot and dry. But there’s an herb with a similar flavor called Mexican tarragon (Tagetes lucida) that does extremely well in arid spots.

Then there are those places where French tarragon suffers from rot or other diseases. Mexican tarragon is a great alternative there, too.

That said, this isn’t just an alternative to that classic kitchen herb. It’s a spectacular plant in its own right.

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Beyond the flavorful leaves and available medicinal uses, it’s drought-tolerant, not fussy about soil, and doubles as an ideal ornamental specimen – it’s actually closely related to marigolds.

In fact, it has so much to offer that in its native Mexico, it’s considered by many to be the plant that can do it all.

If you’ve never heard of this wonder plant, or you want to know more, here’s what we’ll go over:

With all it has going for it, who wouldn’t want this plant to become a part of their garden? Let’s get started!

What Is Mexican Tarragon?

Mexican tarragon is a perennial herb native to Mexico and Central America, though its natural habitat is rapidly shrinking due to climate change and deforestation.

While it belongs to the Asteraceae family along with the more common French tarragon (Artemisia dracunculus), it belongs to a different genus (Tagetes).

It also goes by the names Texas, Spanish, or winter tarragon, as well as sweet mace, yerbis anis, sweet-scented marigold, cloud plant, and Mexican mint marigold.

While French