Dahlia
About the Dahlia
The national flower of Mexico, where they were cultivated by the Aztecs for food, medicine, and ceremony. They were brought to Europe in 1789 and named after Swedish botanist Anders Dahl. Over 42,000 registered cultivars exist, ranging from 5 cm to 30+ cm in diameter. They produce the worlds second most commercially important root carbohydrate after potatoes (inulin). Each floret is an individual flower - a single dahlia head is actually dozens of flowers. They are octoploids with 8 sets of chromosomes, giving extraordinary genetic diversity.
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