[346] Tulipa gesneriana, Tulip

[346] Tulipa gesneriana, Tulip

Introduction

Tulipa gesneriana, our last garden flower, is the very familiar bulb plant that comes in many different colours and varieties.

It may be called the Garden Tulip but, in all contexts, it is normally just the Tulip.

It is a complex horticultural species and can be called Tulipa x gesneriana.

Taxonomy

Kingdom – Plants

Division – Vascular Plants

Class – Angiosperms (Flowering Plants)

Clade – Monocots

Order – Liliales

Family – Liliaceae

Tribe – Lilieae – sometimes split into Lilieae and Tulipeae

Genus – Tulipa

Scientific Name – Tulipa gesneriana, or Tulipa x gesneriana.

It has dozens of scientific synonyms and there are thousands of varieties, some of which come from several other species or hybrids.

Name

Tulip comes via French and Turkish from the Persian and is cognate with turban. It may have been derived from the similarity of the shape of the flower to a turban, or from a translation error at a time when traditionally tulips were worn on turbans.

Conrad Gessner (1516-65) Latinized as Gesnerus, was a Swiss naturalist regarded as the father of scientific bibliography, zoology and biology. He was the first to describe many species including the tulip in 1559. Linnaeus named it after him in 1753.

Description

We have seen some other spring flowering monocot bulb like the [154] Snowdrop, [104] Crocus, [234] Daffodil, [178] Bluebell and [179] Hyacinth.

The Tulip is the of these last in our blog. It normally flowers latest – as late as May – and has the largest, most spectacular flowers, normally a single large flower from each bulb. As a member of the order Liliales, it is not closely related to any of the others listed above.

There are about 75 species of Tulipa, but I will stick to my rule and be imprecise. There are many varieties with a long history of cultivation and my pictures may not all be Tulipa gesneriana.

This species is described as a complex hybridized neo-species and it probably arose at the end of the Sixteenth Century in Turkey from the collections of the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire.

Tulips are typical monocots, usually a single stem bearing a single large flower surrounded by very few large leaves. The leaves, which are easily recognisable, come first before the flower spike emerges.

The original species produced either red or white flowers but horticultural development has produced varieties with all colours except pure blue. Historically there have been attempts at producing a black tulip, with some very dark purple varieties coming close.

Here are some that I have seen in local gardens and parks. The leaves are evident in the first few but for most pictures I have cropped down to show the flowers.

Habitat and use

Tulips come from central Asia but have been cultivated in Persia since the Tenth Century. They spread through Europe in the Sixteenth Century. They are now associated with the Netherlands, where they are widely cultivated for export both as bulbs for garden plants and as cut flowers.

Several species of Tulipa are now widely naturalized over Europe.

They can be grown as a specimen plant or on groups, generally mixed varieties.

The many cultivars include some more elaborate flower types, different sizes and many different colours. Some have been bred to produce two or three flowers or to flower earlier or later in the season.

Other Notes

I have found a local public House and Garden with extensive tulips cultivated. Here are just a few from a recent visit.