Dahlia named Tartan #5
by J McCombie
Title
Dahlia named Tartan #5
Artist
J McCombie
Medium
Photograph - Untouched
Description
This piece has been featured in the FAA Groups: "Flower On Green", "Exquisite Florals", World of Dahlias, and "Flora".
Tartan is a Dahlia classified as B-ID-BI-DR/W. This means it is Medium in Size (B: Medium flowers that exceed 6 to 8 inches (20.3 to 15.2 cm) in diameter) ... Informal Decorative in Form (Informal Decorative: petals are double, irregularly distributed, not flattened but wavy, twisted, or curly and may roll backward. These are the big ones. This group includes the "Dinnerplate Dahlias', while that name is not an official one. Flowers are fully double and the plants are tall. Flower size is the largest, up to 12 inches across. Plants grow up to 60' (5 feet) tall. ), ... and its colour is a Bicolour of Dark Red and White. It grows about 36" to 42" tall. Tartan is my favourite bicoloured Dahlia, with it's very dark red that is burgundy wine with such great depth that contrasts to the clear white. The amount of each colour varies in each Dahlia flower head. And the closer you get to the flower, the more likely you are able to see how the maroon becomes wine, shifts to red and fades to a neon fuchsia pink and sometimes gradually melts or bleeds into the crisp white, outlining each petal and giving the flower more definition and depth. The Informal Decorative petals can either form a flatter disk shape or a more round ball shape with petals going in all directions. It really stands out in the garden!
Dahlia is a genus of bushy, tuberous, herbaceous perennial plants native to Mexico, Central America, and Colombia. A member of the Asteraceae or Compositae, dicotyledonous plants, related species include the sunflower, daisy, chrysanthemum and zinnia. There are at least 36 species of dahlia, with hybrids commonly grown as garden plants. Flower forms are variable, with one head per stem; these can be as small as 2" in diameter or up to 12" ("dinner plate"). This great variety results from dahlias being octoploids - that is, they have eight sets of homologous chromosomes, whereas most plants have only two. In addition, dahlias also contain many transposons - genetic pieces that move from place to place upon an allele - which contributes to their manifesting such great diversity.
The stems are leafy, ranging in height from as low as 12" to more than 6-8'. The majority of species do not produce scented flowers or cultivars. Like most plants that do not attract pollinating insects through scent, they are brightly colored, displaying most hues, with the exception of blue. "Dahl" is a homophone of the Swedish word "dal", or "valley"; although it is not a true translation, the plant is sometimes referred to as the "valley flower".
Spanish Hidalgos reported finding the plants growing in Mexico in 1525. They were used for a food source, and were both gathered in the wild and cultivated. The Aztecs used them to treat epilepsy, and employed the long hollow stem of the Dahlia imperalis for water pipes. The indigenous peoples variously identified the plants as "Chichipatl" (Toltecs) and "Acocotle" or "Cocoxochitl" (Aztecs) translated as "water cane", "water pipe", "water pipe flower", "hollow stem flower" and "cane flower". All these refer to the hollowness of the plants' stem. The dahlia was declared the national flower of Mexico in 1963.
Uploaded
January 3rd, 2018
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Viewed 200 Times - Last Visitor from Killeen, TX on 04/18/2024 at 5:52 AM
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Comments (2)
Stephen Melia
Exceptional macro bloom nice depth control, awesome color and presentation superb detail l/f
J McCombie replied:
Thanks so much for your comments, Stephen. I'm glad you've enjoyed this piece. ...J.