Dahlia | The Species of Britain

[113] Dahlia pinnata, Garden Dahlia

Introduction

Dahlia pinnata, the Garden Dahlia, is a widely cultivated garden plant, originating from Mexico, that comes in many varieties. It is grown mainly for its large, showy, colourful flowers but may also have decorative leaves.

Taxonomy

Kingdom – Plants

Division – Vascular Plants

Class – Angiosperms (Flowering Plants)

Order – Asterales

Family – Asteraceae

Genus – Dahlia

Scientific Name – Dahlia pinnata

The Garden Dahlia is probably a hybrid with a species now extinct in the wild. It was introduced to Europe in the Sixteenth Century from Aztec America (now Mexico).

The genus Dahlia has over 60 000 registered cultivars.

Name

See below for the history of the Dahlia. Dahlia pinnata was named from the pinnate leaves. Like many garden flowers it is usually known by its Scientific name as a Dahlia.

Dahlia

There are 42 species of Dahlia and many thousands of cultivated varieties, many of which are hybrids between species.

They are members of the Aster family and some have simple flowers of the Aster type but there is great variety in size, colour and shape.

As early as 1570, Spanish explorers found them amongst the native Aztec population who gathered wild ones and also cultivated them – to eat, in the treatment of epilepsy, and as water pipes (using their long hollow stems.)

The two earliest species to be identified were D pinnata, the type species and D imperalis. Plants were soon brought back to Europe and were named Dahlia after Anders (Andreas) Dahl, a student of Linnaeus

Description

I won’t attempt to describe all the varieties of flowers. Some are relatively simple. Some are full, almost spherical. Some are like multi-pointed stars. They vary from about 10-30 cm. Colours can be all shades of white, yellow, pink, red or light purple.