The Stanford Dahlia Project

Tim Culbertson

Dahlia ‘Lirio Vario’

Dahlias at Stanford

Grown at the Plant Growth Facility on Stock Farm Rd.

80 varieties

Prepared Beds

Subsoil Irrigation and Fertilization

Dahlia ‘Duet’

Project Purpose

Dahlias in Plant Genetics

Dr. Virginia Walbot

Flower color & plant pigment genetics

Forms

Hybridization

Color analysis

Other Questions?

Project Examples

1. Does floral pigmentation correlate with leaf and stem pigmentation?

2. What are the differences in the pigments found in dark purple, lavender/purple, red, orange, pink, yellow and white flowers?

3. How could you define the "phenocritical" period for stem or leaf pigmentation?

4. Is the frequency of transposon excision constant over petal development?

Project Examples

Focus on Transposons –

Genes that control variegation

Dahlia ‘Blackberry Ripple’Dahlia ‘Lirio Vario’

So Far…

1. Database

2. Website

3. Culture!!

Dahlia ‘Spartacus’

www.stanford.edu/group/dahlia_genetics/

Stanford Dahlia Project

How can you help?

1. Identify website problems

2. Identify new varieties we need to grow

3. Identify new study questions

4. Add images / information to the database

5. Allow students to use your garden

6. Help grow out seedlings

Stanford Dahlia Project

Questions?

Cultivated Dahlias at the USNA Herbarium

Collections of dried plants, fruits, cones, etc.

Largest – Paris with 8 million specimens

Largest in US – Harvard with 5 million

USNA – rare due to emphasis on cultivated plants (about 800,000 sheets)

Roses, Boxwood, California Native, Carnivores, Strybing Arboretum, Dahlias

Herbariums

A Library

How to Make a Sheet

1. Cut about 18” of plant material with flowers

2. Note collection data

Date, Location, Variety, Habitat Information

3. Press between newspaper inside cardboard inside wooden press

4. Make labels with collection data

5. Glue plant and label to archival paper

Demonstration

Come on up!!