Chocolate Cosmos

 

Chocolate Cosmo
Chocolate Cosmos

 

Quick Notes / 

Small and velvety, this flower is favored for it’s dark burgundy hue and chocolate aroma. A cultivated wildflower and relative of the dahlia; chocolate cosmos are especially attractive to bumble bees and butterflies. They are most readily available from early summer to fall.  It is said that chocolate cosmos in particular mean “I love you more than anybody can.”

Visual Notes /

Chocolate cosmos is an herbaceous perennial hailing from Mexico. Its lobed leaves and dark maroon flowers with velvety petals emerge from tubers that resemble fingerling potatoes.  

Flower History /

Cosmos atrosanguineus (Chocolate Cosmos) is a species of Cosmos, native to Mexico, where it is extinct in the wild. The species was introduced into cultivation in 1902, where it survives as a single clone reproduced by vegetative propagation.  The single surviving clone is a popular ornamental plant, grown for its rich dark red-brown flowers. 

Inside Info /

  • Because all the chocolate cosmos trace their heritage back to an original, not self-fertile clone, they do not produce viable seeds. The able grower either uses divisions of another plants tuber or tissue culture to propagate new plants.
  • When chocolate cosmos are in the sun, their chocolate aroma heats up too.

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