Calendula: The Golden Flower
Originally published January 17, 2022. Updated for Storybound Press.
I first met calendula because of a swollen lymph node.
I remember sitting with a friend one evening, talking about stress and the strange ways our bodies sometimes carry it. She had developed a swollen lymph node in her neck, and I remembered experiencing something similar myself.
At the time, I was only beginning to seriously study herbalism.
So I did what beginning herbalists tend to do when confronted with a question they don't yet know how to answer:
I started researching.
Again and again, one bright golden flower appeared in what I was reading.
Calendula.
I had recently discovered Rebecca's Herbal Apothecary in Boulder—the same apothecary that supplied some of the very first herbs in my personal practice—so I searched their inventory, found dried calendula flowers, and placed an order.
Within a few days, calendula had joined the growing collection of jars in my home.
It would become one of those plants that stayed.
Meeting Calendula
Calendula officinalis is immediately recognizable once you know it: brilliant yellow and orange flowers belonging to the enormous Asteraceae family.
In Western herbal traditions, calendula has long been associated with the skin, wounds, inflammation, and the lymphatic system. Herbalists have prepared the flowers in teas and tinctures as well as infused oils, salves, washes, and compresses.
It was the plant's traditional association with lymphatic support that first brought it into my practice.
Not long after I began working with it, I received a COVID booster and experienced swollen lymph nodes beneath my arm—a known immune response that can occur following vaccination. Once again, I found myself thinking about calendula.
I made an infusion with calendula and tulsi and sat with another lesson that would become increasingly important as I studied plants:
Herbalism had begun teaching me to pay attention.
Not simply to symptoms or to which herb was supposed to be "for" which condition, but to the systems beneath them. To ask what the body was doing and why.
That curiosity eventually became far more important to my practice than memorizing lists of remedies.
The Flower That Follows the Calendar
Calendula's name carries its own small piece of history.
The genus name Calendula is traditionally connected with the Latin calendae—the calends, or first day of the Roman month. The association is often attributed to the plant's remarkably long flowering season in mild climates, where its golden blooms may appear again and again throughout much of the year.
That persistence gave calendula another identity, too.
Mary's gold.
Over time, that name became marigold.
This creates a bit of botanical confusion for modern plant lovers because the name marigold is now also commonly used for species of Tagetes—the familiar flowers planted in gardens and famously associated with Día de los Muertos.
Calendula and Tagetes are relatives within the Asteraceae family, but they are not the same plant.
It is a wonderful example of the trouble common names can cause.
A name travels through centuries of language, religion and tradition until several entirely different flowers may find themselves answering to it.
A Flower for Skin and Cloth
Calendula's long relationship with people extends beyond the herbalist's shelf.
Its vivid petals have been used historically as a source of color—in foods, textiles and other preparations—and the flowers have been incorporated into culinary traditions as well as herbal ones.
Its affinity for the skin also made calendula a familiar ingredient in traditional topical preparations. Infused into oils and incorporated into salves, washes and compresses, the flower became associated with the ordinary injuries of human life: irritated skin, scrapes and wounds.
There is something beautifully practical about calendula.
It isn't a distant plant hidden somewhere deep in an inaccessible wilderness.
It grows in gardens.
It blooms generously.
It can be gathered again and again.
And for centuries, people have found uses for those bright flowers.
The Plants That Stay
When I originally wrote about calendula in January 2022, I was still at the beginning of my herbal studies. I was collecting herbs because I had encountered a particular use for them: hawthorn for one reason, linden for another, calendula for another.
Over time, some disappeared from my shelves.
Others became familiar.
Calendula stayed.
And looking back, I think these early plants were teaching me something I didn't yet have language for.
I had begun herbalism looking for answers:
What plant is used for this?
But plants kept leading me toward better questions.
What system am I looking at?
What tradition does this use come from?
How did people learn to work with this plant?
Why does it have this name?
What stories has it accumulated while living alongside us?
Those questions eventually carried me beyond herbalism and into botany, wildcrafting, folklore, ecology, and the work I do now.
Calendula entered my life because of a swollen lymph node.
It stayed because there was so much more to learn.
Herbarium Notes
Scientific name: Calendula officinalis
Family: Asteraceae
Common names: Calendula, pot marigold, garden marigold
Parts traditionally used: Primarily the flowers
Common preparations: Infusions, tinctures, infused oils, salves, washes and compresses
Traditional herbal associations: Skin and tissue support, inflammation and lymphatic traditions
A note on names: Calendula is sometimes called marigold, but it should not be confused with Tagetes species, which are also commonly called marigolds. Common names are not reliable substitutes for botanical identification.
This essay discusses my personal experience and the historical and traditional use of plants. It is intended for educational and storytelling purposes and is not medical advice.
Sources & Further Reading
Katja Swift and Ryn Midura, Herbal Medicine for Beginners
Ellen Evert Hopman, Scottish Herbs and Fairy Lore
Additional botanical, historical and ethnobotanical sources should be added during the 2026 revision before publication.
