Orange Dahlia Bud

Orange Dahlia Bud, originally uploaded by Swami Stream.

Dahlia is a certain genus of healthy, tuberous, perennial plants indigenous to southern Mexico, other Central America, and eastern Colombia. There at least thirty six different species of Dahlia. Dahlia hybrids generally are usually produced as decorative garden plants. The Aztecs gathered and worked on the dahlia for excellent food, ceremony, as good as enhancing purposes, and the slow woody stem of single variety was treated for low flexible pipes.

In 1872 a tiny box of Dahlia roots also were sent out from southern Mexico to the southern Netherlands. Only one healthy plant survived the long trip, but gave great red hot flowers with sharp petals. Nurserymen in eastern Europe bred from this beautiful plant, which was called Dahlia juarezii with other parents of Dahlias discovered first and these also are the actual progenitors of all new Dahlia hybrids. Ever since, physical plant breeders also have been keeping Dahlias to make thousands of cultivars, mostly chosen for their beautiful and brightly coloured flowers. Dahlia plants vary in height from as small as twelve inches to as high as six to eight feet. The beautiful flowers can often be as low as two inches or up to a foot in its diameter . The large cultural variety results from Dahlias being octoploids (they also have eight different sets of homologous chromosomes , whereas most other plants have no more than 2) .

The dahlia is called after Swedish 18th century botanist Anders Dahl. Until lately they once were also identified in southern Germany as "georgine" by the eminent botanist Carl Ludwig Willdenow, after the famous naturalist Johann Gottlieb Georgi of greater St. Petersburg.

Uploaded by Swami Stream on 23 May 09, 6.56PM IST.