Do you know San Francisco’s official flower?
Did you even know we have one?
It’s the dahlia and if you visit the Dahlia Dell, now in peak season, you’ll see why it’s such a perfect symbol for the city.
The small oval garden is a riot of color and form. Many flowers have a basic profile: tulips, for instance, all have the same lollipop shape. But the dahlia family encompasses a mind-boggling variety. There are more than 700 varieties growing in the Dell. You’ll see pom poms of petals tucked tight as a drum; big frowsy blooms that look like they’ve been nipping at the whiskey all night; open-faced blossoms simple as a child’s drawing; thick swirls of petals frothy as ballgowns, and more. Some are tiny as thumbs, some bigger than dinner plates. There are creamy whites, scallop pinks, sunshiny yellows, creamsicle oranges, eye-popping scarlets, deep purples, near blacks, as well as endless color combos. It’s a rainbow palette -- or would be, if dahlias could produce the enzyme that makes blue.
This dazzling diversity comes from the dahlia’s unusual genetics. While most plants have two sets of chromosomes, the dahlia has eight. It’s also packed with jumping genes that can hop around the chromosome, all of which makes the dahlia “inherently more unstable than other garden plants.” It’s built for perpetual reinvention on its own or at the hands of breeders. As a result, the simple daisy-like plant that Spanish explorers plucked from Mexico and brought to Europe in the 1500s, has exploded into tens of thousands of varieties.
I don’t know what led the Board of Supervisors to designate the dahlia the city flower in 1926. But I love the parallels noted between flower and city in the resolution they passed unanimously. The dahlia, it states, “partakes essentially of the character of our beloved city, in birth, breeding and habit, for it was originally Mexican, carried thence to Spain, to France and England in turn, being changed in the process from a simple daisy-like wild flower to a cosmopolitan beauty.”
It “ has the primitive strength of our pioneer ancestors, together with the gayety and color that no other city nor flower can hope to equal, going, like our artists and poets, to carry color and beauty into far climes...in its versatility, its beauty, its infinite variety of color and form, it is the very symbol of San Francisco life and of the spirit of her people.”
For all the ways the city has changed in the century since, that description, thankfully, still resonates.
I loved reading about this - went to the Dahlia Dell today - where an extraordinary group of Dahlia-tenders were there to proudly show off this year's best, and answer all questions. There is actually a Dahlia Queen - everybody knows her...
Yet again, you've written about something I didn't know, that dahlias are models of the beauty of diversity!, that they are SF's city flower (really, who knew?), and that there is a dahlia dell in the park. Time to go see the beauty! Thank you for spotlighting yet another bit of beauty in the park and city.