My favorite flower, the Black Dahlia

The Black Dahlia 

The Black Dahlia is one of my favorite flowers, contrary to the murder mystery of the Elizabeth short, the Black Dahlia is scientifically known as Dahlia Pinnata Cav. The flower itself is very popular, and very appreciated. Its flower has multiple parts to it, the petals are almost half cones, with deep red, and burgundy color that appears as a black flower hence the name.

The dahlia is a perennial tuberous plant the flower is normally planted in the spring and they bloom mid summer around june, these can last up to the ends of october. You can even leave the bulbs in the soil through winter and they'll come back each year because of the perennial nature of the plant.  The Dahlia grows from a bulb like most flowers, the stem is tubed, they have very leafy stems, and they can grow as high as 6-8ft. The Dahlia originates from Mexico, columbia, and central america, but it was introduced to spain in 1802 by a botanist, and a swedish botanist by the name of Andreas Dahl gave the name dahlia to this plant. Its original use in Mexico and Columbia was known as  “Cocoxochitl,” meaning cane of water due to its tubed stem like structure. It was used to feed animals on its foliage and stem. 

So the reason i love this flower is the color of it really, the way it shines in light at different angles you can see that sometimes it'll look deep burgundy, deep red, purple or dark blue even, but the best one is when they look just black and crisp. The texture can also affect visually if there's different light it can look smooth, velvet like. The dahlia relates back to history as well, in the victorian times the display of emotions and love was uncommon and seen as a bad thing so this was really the starting period in which people with send others flowers to show them how they felt, the black dahlia was a flower of commitment, eternal bond between lovers, it was also a flower of elegance and royalty.