Tulip

The tulip (scientific name: Tulipa) is a flowering plant genus in the family Liliaceae. The plant grows from a bulb—an underground storage structure located beneath the soil. Each year the bulb produces a small number of leaves and typically a single, large cup-shaped flower.

Tulips are native to the mountainous and steppe regions of central Asia, Iran, Anatolia, and neighbouring areas. In these regions, rainfall is seasonal: the bulb grows during spring when moisture is available, then enters dormancy in summer while storing nutrients underground. For this reason, tulips are spring-flowering plants that bloom rapidly.

Flower characteristics

The tulip flower has six identical tepals arranged in two whorls of three. Inside are six stamens and one pistil divided into three parts. The fruit is an angled capsule containing numerous seeds. The leaves are straight and blue-green, sometimes with a waxy coating. Flower colours vary widely: red, pink, white, purple, and nearly black, but true blue does not occur.

Cultivation and commerce

Tulip growers plant bulbs in autumn so they receive the cold period needed for flowers to open properly. Bulbs are propagated by separation: large bulbs produce smaller offshoots that are separated out. The Netherlands is among the world's largest producers of tulip bulbs and exports them internationally; bulbs are sold to gardeners and florists in boxes packed with cooling material to preserve flowers out of season.

Culture and history

Tulips were cultivated for centuries in Ottoman court gardens, where they were called lale and became an artistic and decorative symbol. In the 16th and 17th centuries they were brought to Europe, where the market for tulip bulbs reached extremely high prices and subsequently crashed—an episode cited in economic history as an early example of speculative bubble.