THE TREE DAHLIA OF GUATEMALA 
WILSON POPENOE 
Agricultural Explorer, United States Department of Agriculture 
highlands in the months of De- 
cember or January, the traveler 
is certain to be impressed with the 
beauty of the wild tree dahlia whose 
starry, lilac-pink flowers, in graceful 
clusters upon long slender stems, break 
the somber monotony of a dark green 
hillside in a most effective manner. 
And as he enters one of the picturesque 
Indian villages of the highlands, particu- 
larly if he be so fortunate as to find him- 
self in the town of Tactic, he is sure to 
be enchanted by the flowering hedges 
of this plant which surround the di- 
minutive gardens of the people. 
R vicita through the Guatemalan 
SUITABLE FOR SUB-TROPICAL AREAS 
Why has not the Guatemalan tree 
dahlia become more widely known 
horticulturally? A plant at once so 
beautiful, so conspicuous in its native 
home, and so readily propagated should 
be one of the first to be carried to other 
lands; yet Dahlia maxoni (such is the 
n me under which the species is now 
known) seems never to have become 
widely distributed. Probably this is 
due to the fact that its climatic require- 
ments fit it for cultivation only in the 
mildest parts of the sub-tropics, or in 
the tropics at elevations sufficiently 
high to temper the heat. When planted 
in northern gardens, it is cut down by 
frost before it has had an opportunity 
to come into flower, though in favored 
situations in southern California it has 
occasionally bloomed gorgeously. In 
Florida, if the proper soil conditions 
can be provided, it should prove suc- 
cessful. And certainly there are many 
places in northern India, in southern 
Japan, in sub-tropical Brazil, and 
numerous other countries where it 
would find congenial surroundings, and 
where it would prove an excellent ad- 
dition to the list of garden plants. 
To the Kekchi Indians of northern 
Guatemala, this dahlia is known as 
solokh, while those who speak the 
Pokonchi language call it shzkor. Span- 
ish-speaking Guatemalans usually term 
it Santa Catarina. Though extremely 
abundant, both wild and cultivated, in 
many parts of the Guatemalan high- 
lands (principally between 3,000 and 
7,000 feet elevation) it seems never to 
have received much attention from 
botanists; indeed, W. E. Safford, of the 
U. S. Department of Agriculture, last 
year found that it had not yet received 
even a name, hence he described it as 
Dahlia maxoni, in honor of William A. 
Maxon, of the U. S. National Her- 
barium. 
FOUR DISTINCT FORMS 
When I first saw this plant in Guate- 
mala during the winter of 1916-17, I 
felt immediately that it was worthy of 
horticultural attention. Still more was 
I impressed with its possibilities when 
I found what appeared to be four dis- 
tinct forms of the species; the type, 
which is single-flowered and lilac-pink 
in color; a single-flowered white vari- 
ety, identical with the type except in 
color; and two double-flowered vari- 
eties—one lilac-pink and one white. I 
sent cuttings of these double-flowered 
forms to Washington, where they were 
propagated but later lost by freezing, 
and I took home with me photographs 
of them. From my description of the 
plant, and from photographs, Mr. 
Safford thought the double-flowered 
form so distinct from the type that he 
did not include it in his description of 
Dahlia maxont. 
Upon returning to Guatemala, and 
again seeing the tree dahlia in bloom, I 
have been able to satisfy myself that 
the double-flowered varieties have their 
origin in the single-flowered, typical 
form, and properly belong to the same 
species. 
As a wild plant, upon the mountain- 
sides removed from cultivation, I have 
never seen any other than the typical 
form, with eight lilac-pink ray-florets 
