tags: NYC, Upper West Side, Manhattan, flowers, nature, image of the day
Dahlia, Dahlia hybrid.
Photographed on Manhattan's Upper West Side
on West 81st street as I was walking to the post office.
Dahlias comprise a genus with at least 36 species of bushy plants that are native to the western regions of Central and South America. There are more than 20,000 named cultivars of these plants in captivity, which are the result of both hybridization and chromosomal duplication: Dahlias are octoploid -- possessing eight copies of each homologous chromosome, whereas most plants have only two copies of each chromosome.
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Ooh look! There's an aphid trampling all over it with its big boots.
>>Dahlias are octoploid -- possessing eight copies of each homologous chromosome, whereas most plants have only two copies of each chromosome.
Actually hybridization and polyploidy is a fairly common, and very well documented, speciation mechanism in plants. Some people estimate that up to 70% of plant species may be polyploid.