Pot marigold (Calendula officinalis L.) is an annual ornamental plant which is also grown for herbal raw material used in the pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries. There are a lot of pot marigold cultivars which differ in colour and in size of inflorescences as well as participation of ligulate flowers. In the field experiment there were five cultivars of pot marigold compared: ’Orange King’, ‘Persimmom Beauty’ ‘Promyk’, ‘Radio’ and ‘Santana’. As far as morphological features are concerned ‘Orange King’ turned out to be the best. It produced the most numerous and shapeliest inflorescences, with the biggest number of ligulate flowers. Raw material yield of compared cultivars oscillated from 849 to 1661 kg·ha^-1 of flower heads, and the ligulate flowers themselves from 449 to 1141 kg·ha^-1. In both cases the highest yield was obtained by ‘Orange King’, and the lowest by ‘Promyk.’ The content of biologically active compounds in inflorescences of particular cultivars also varied: flower heads of ‘Persimmom Beauty’ contained the highest amount of essential oil (0.41 ml·100 g^-1), whereas ‘Promyk’ contained the highest amount of flavonoids (0.56% – expressed in hyperoside). In all cultivars inflorescence receptacle gathered the highest amount of essential oil and ligulate flowers gathered the least. The opposite tendency appeared in the case of flavonoids.

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