Dahlia

   The original dahlia was discovered in Mexico. It was a stiff, plain-looking flower with eight red rays around a yellow center. Dahlias now have almost every kind of shape and color. Some are shaped like balls; others have long, flat petals; one variety has double blossoms with long, twisted petals.

   Dahlias are native to tropical America but are now grown throughout the United States, in southern Canada, and Europe. Today thousands of varieties have been crossed and cultivated from the single plant. The person deserving the credit for this popular flower was Baron Alexander von Humboldt, a German naturalist who, in 1789, during a scientific exploration in Mexico, first spotted it. He sent a specimen to Spain, where the flower was named by Professor Cavanilles, of the Madrid Botanic Garden. But the flower was not named Humboldt; instead the honor was given to Anders Dahl (1751-1789), a fellow professor of Cavanilles and a Swedish botanist, a former pupil of Carolus Linnaeus, a Swedish botanist and taxonomist.