Cactus Dahlia cultivar

Cactus Dahlia cultivar, with typical backward curling petals

The dahlia was declared the national flower of Mexico in 1963

 Many sources state that the name "Dahlia" was bestowed by the pioneering Swedish botanist and taxonomist Carl Linnaeus to honor his late student, Anders Dahl, author of Observationes Botanicae

 The tubers were grown as a food crop by the Aztecs, but this use largely died out after the Spanish Conquest

Attempts to introduce the tubers as a food crop in Europe were unsuccessful