George Stimpson

The dahlia was named in 1791 in honor of Andreas Dahl, Swedish botanist and pupil of Linnaeus, from specimens seen by the German naturalist and explorer Baron Alexander von Humboldt. Dahlias comprise a small genus of tuberous-rooted flowering herbs of the thistle family and are indigenous to Mexico and Central America. Some varieties of the plant were grown by the Aztecs and were taken to Spain in the eighteenth century. One variety was introduced into England from Spain in 1789 by the Marchioness of Bute.