Dahlia merckii - a Hamburger with Mexican roots

In 1839, Johann Georg Christian Lehmann—the Director of the Botanical Gardens of Hamburg, Germany—named a newly discovered dahlia species to honor Heinrich Johann Merck [1,2]: Dahlia merckii it became. Merck was a merchant, lover of plants and senator of Hamburg (portrayed by Otto Speckter: Senator zu Hamburg, 1835).

Dahliengarten (dahlia garden), Berlin 2017

While strolling through the Dahliengarten (dahlia garden) designed as part of the International Garden Exhibition in Berlin's Marzahn-Hellersdorf (IGA Berlin 2017), I came across an informative panel describing the naming of D. merckii as follows:

One of about 35 species of the genus Dahlia is the Merck's Dahlia (Dahlia merckii). A few decades after Dahlia coccinea and Dahlia pinnata have been introduced to the European horticulture, seeds of the Merck's Dahlia reached the Hamburg Botanical Garden. The director of the Garden, JOHANN G. C. LEHMAN (1791-1860), soon realized that these seeds represent a new undiscovered species which he named in honor of HEINRICH J. MERCK (1770-1853), a well known Hamburg politician.

Dahlia merckii, like all dahlia species have Mexican (or northern South American) roots [3]. Soon after the first dahlias successfully grew from seeds that had been brought from Mexico to Europe, dahlias were cultivated and studied in gardens of the new continent (from a dahlia-geographic  viewpoint). The scientific genus name, Dahlia, honors the Swedish botanist and Linnaeus-student  Andreas (Anders) Dahl.


Keywords: horticulture, floriculture, dahlia species, scientific name, eponomy, taxonomy.

References and more to explore

[1] Claudia Sewig: Dahlien und ihr Freundeskreis. Hamburger Abendblatt  June 6, 2003. Link: https://www.abendblatt.de/vermischtes/journal/article106710562/Dahlien-und-ihr-Freundeskreis.html.

[2] Dahlia merckii: senador Johann Heinrich Merck. Asociación Mexicana de la Dalia o Acocoxochitl, A.C., February 28, 2015. Link: http://daliaoacocoxochitl.com.mx/blog_dalia-merckii-senador-johann-heinrich-merck.html.

[3]  Martin Král: Of Dahlia Myths and Aztec Mythology - The Dahlia in History. Seattle, Washington, 2014. Link: dahlia.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Dahlia-Myths-Part-1.pdf.

How did the genus Dahlia get its name?

The scientific name Dahlia is the latinized surname of Andreas Dahl (1751-1789), a Swedist botanist and student of taxonomer Carl Linnaeus. He was also known as Anders Dahl [1].

Dahlias are native to Mexico. In the literature, the details of the Dahlia eponymy are told with variations, often hinting at knowledge gaps. The Spaniard Antonio José Cavanilles y Palop (1745-1804)—Director of the Royal Gardens of Madrid and an eager supporter of the Linnaean taxonomy—is typically credited for honoring Dahl. But what was the relationship between Cavanilles and Dahl? Was it a Cavanilles-Linneaus-Dahl relationship and what was Dahl's contribution to dahlia taxonomy?

Martin Král writes that Anders Dahl died on May 25, 1789, of  phlegmatic fever of pneumonia [2]. Dahl's death occurred more than a year before Cavanilles—who had received dahlia seeds in 1790 from the Director of the botanical gardens in Mexico City, Vincente Cervantes (1755-1829)—saw the first dahlia in bloom in Madrid [3,4].

Only four of the 35 wild dahlia species have constituted the genetic basis for the development of a dahlia floriculture [5]. What follows is a collection of dahlia cultivar photos I made in the Dahliengarten (dahlia garden) that was designed for the International Garden Exhibition in Berlin in 2017 (IGA Berlin 2017).

Dahlia Akita

Dahlia Cryfield Harmony

Dahlia Dzivite

Dahlia Gute Laune

Dahlia Elsie Huston

Dahlia IGA Rostock

Dahlia Philadelphia

Dahlia Red Fox

Dahlia Traute

Dahlia Vielliebchen

Dahlia Stadt Würzburg

References and more to explore

[1]  Dahl, Andreas (Anders) (1751-1789). JSTOR - Global Plants. Link: plants.jstor.org/stable/10.5555/al.ap.person.bm000001794.

[2] Martin Král: Of Dahlia Myths and Aztec Mythology - The Dahlia in History. Seattle, Washington, 2014. Link: dahlia.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Dahlia-Myths-Part-1.pdf.

[3] Dahlien, vom Kultursymbol über Nahrungsquelle und Heilpflanze bis zu ausgefallensten Züchtungen für unsere Gärten. ZOOGRÜN e. V. Link: www.zoogrün.de/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Dahlien.pdf.

[4] The Dahlia: An Early History. Arnold Arboretum, Harvard. Link: arnoldia.arboretum.harvard.edu/pdf/articles/1970-30-4-the-dahlia-an-early-history.pdf.

[5] L. J. Mariña: Review: Cultivation of the dahlia. Cultivoa Tropicales, 2015, 36 (10), pp. 103-110. Link: scielo.sld.cu/pdf/ctr/v36n1/en_ctr14115.pdf.