Image: Zinnia elegans at Kadavoor

Description: Zinnia elegans, Common zinnia, Youth-and-old-age, is an annual flowering plant of the genus Zinnia, is one of the best known zinnias. The uncultivated plant grows to about 30 in (76 cm) in height. It has solitary flower heads about 2 in (5 cm) across on stems resembling daisies. The purple florets surround black and yellow discs. The lanceolate leaves are opposite the flower heads. Wild Zinnia elegans is a desert plant found in Mexico. Garden varieties may escape and naturalise. The species was collected in 1789 at Tixtla, Guerrero, by Sessé and Mociño. It was formally described as Zinnia violacea by Cavanilles in 1791. Jacquin described it again in 1792 as Zinnia elegans, which was the name that Sessé and Moçiño had used in their manuscript of Plantae Novae Hispaniae, which was not published until 1890.
Title: Zinnia elegans at Kadavoor
Credit: Own work
Author: Jeevan Jose, Kerala, India
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