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Like that manuscript, the dahlia was brought into Europe through
Spain by early explorers. It was a lively time for horticulture.
Many illustrious gardens were seeking to incorporate exotic plants
from around the world. The Royal Botanical Garden in Madrid sent
specimens of the plant to Germany, England, Italy, France, and the
Netherlands.
Because of its rarity and showy nature, the dahlia was a
treasured bloom. In 1828 England, a new dahlia could fetch a very
high price, more than several weeks’ wages for a laborer. Gardeners
all over Europe were intensely breeding and hybridizing the plant
to achieve new colors, fuller and showier blooms, prettier foliage,
and stronger stems. Their efforts became a foundation for the
thousands of varieties that exist today.
The plant has retained its value as a bloom. For a commercial
grower, an acre of dahlias could be worth as much as $200,000. With
that much at stake, it’s no wonder they’re concerned about
viruses.
To get a better understanding of dahlia mosaic virus, Pappu and
his students are turning back to the wild species in Mexico. With
the help of geneticist Dayle Saar, a colleague at Murray State
University who searches for wild dahlias, Pappu has been able to
discover that some of the viruses that affect dahlias were present
in the plant’s ancestors.
To date, scientists have identified 36 different species of
dahlia in Mexico. By studying them and their infection and
interaction with viruses, Pappu hopes to find a way to address the
virus in the garden-variety plant.
Until more is known about the viruses, commercial growers like
Dan Pearson use quarantine sites to grow out new varieties before
introducing them to their farms. But Dan’s biggest challenge so far
hasn’t been disease. It was a much larger culprit.
In the summer of 1994 a major, even earth-shaking, event wiped
out Dan’s crop. While he was away at a family wedding in
California, the neighbor’s Holsteins broke loose and “ate a whole
three acres of dahlias to the ground, broke the wooden stakes, and
destroyed all the plastic identification ribbons,” says Dan. “They
wiped me out that year.”
But he maintains a sense of humor about it, which is why his
logo is a cow munching a dahlia. “It keeps me humble, reminds me of
my roots,” he says.
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