Herb. No. 245 · Asteraceae
Mexican highland plant; a world florist crop and a spare kitchen tuber.
Native · Mexico & Central America
Dahlia
Dahlia × pinnata
Garden flowersKitchenFlowersHarvestCompanions
Mexico’s original food tuber that Europe turned into a show bloom — petals for a salad, tubers for a dry-winter cellar.
Dahlia was eaten in Mexico long before it was a county-fair prize. The inulin-rich tuber is a mild, watery root-vegetable; petals of single and open types are a mild garnish. Decorative dinner-plate flowers are bred for show, not supper. In zone 6b the tuber lifts after frost, stores cool and dry, and goes back out after the soil is warm. Treat it as a tender perennial with a cellar, not a hardy border.
Flavor
Petals are mild lettuce. Tuber is water-chestnut adjacent, slightly sweet, best roasted or sautéed.
Parts used
Tuber · Petal
Helpful
- A second harvest under the bloom
- Cut-flower tower
- Stores like a dahlia, because it is one
Cautions
- Must lift in zone 6b
- Show blooms are not the best eating
- Earwigs live in the heads