Kauaʻi record · kba_plant_tithonia_diversifolia
Tree Marigold
Tithonia diversifolia
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About Tree Marigold
A tall aromatic shrub with very soft wood, hairy young growth and large palmately three-to-five-lobed leaves. Large terminal heads have numerous yellow rays around a disk. Flattened hairy achenes carry two persistent awns and a ring of smaller scales. Established wild occurrence warrants observations of occupied cover, reproductive plants and new recruits. These measurements can test persistence and spread. The reviewed accounts do not quantify an island-wide effect on Kauaʻi native vegetation.
Kauaʻi evidence
Generated media is not occurrence evidence. Proposed monitoring endpoints are not reported observations, measured effects or causal findings.
Names and classification
- Scientific name
- Tithonia diversifolia
- Common names
- tree marigold · Mexican sunflower
- Other names
- Tithonia diversifolia · tree marigold · Mexican sunflower
- Record type
- Species
Kauaʻi occurrence and status
- Kauaʻi occurrence
- Recorded on Kauaʻi
- Origin
- Introduced
- Conservation status
- Not yet assessed
- Evidence date
- 2026-10-07
- Evidence limits
- Island-level public occurrence only. Retain palmately lobed foliage and the correct disk-and-ray head structure; do not substitute unlobed sunflower leaves.
Habitat and ecology
- Habitats
- Not yet assessed
- Food and resource needs
- Not yet assessed
- Reproduction
- Not yet assessed
- Shelter
- Not yet assessed
- Growth form
- Shrub or subshrub; Shrub, 2‒5 m tall, wood very soft, villous and aromatic, glandular to subglabrate.
Threats and conservation
- Monitoring
- Occupied area and vegetation cover; Mature plants and new recruits; Reproductive plants and fruiting frequency. Proposed monitoring endpoints are not reported observations, measured effects or causal findings.
- Data gaps
- Current island extent and population trend · Measured local ecological effects
Process and seasonal context
- Seasonal timing
- Not yet assessed
- Seasonal description
- A tall aromatic shrub with very soft wood, hairy young growth and large palmately three-to-five-lobed leaves. Large terminal heads have numerous yellow rays around a disk. Flattened hairy achenes carry two persistent awns and a ring of smaller scales. Established wild occurrence warrants observations of occupied cover, reproductive plants and new recruits. These measurements can test persistence and spread. The reviewed accounts do not quantify an island-wide effect on Kauaʻi native vegetation.