octaploids

Posted on 24 July 2015 by andyrew 1 min

Specimen dahlias at a client's yard.

Dahlias are octaploids (eight pairs of like chromosomes (just like the Acipenser genus of sturgeon)), each chromosome housing many transposons (segments of DNA which can move around in a chromosome).

All these genes and transposon migrations make for much variation in the way they look, and how they bloom.

The pure white blooms are about 9" in diameter...