Garden Tulip
Tulipa gesneriana
During the Dutch Golden Age, tulip bulbs became so valuable that they triggered 'Tulip Mania', the world's first recorded speculative economic bubble where single bulbs sold for more than the price of a house.
- Scientific name
- Tulipa gesneriana
- Taxonomy
- Plantae › Tracheophyta › Liliopsida › Liliales › Liliaceae › Tulipa
- IUCN Red List status
- Least Concern
- Population trend
- stable
- Biome
- grassland
- Habitat
- Temperate grasslands, meadows, and cultivated gardens
- Diet
- Autotrophic (photosynthesis, drawing water and minerals from soil)
- Range
- Central Asia, Turkey, Netherlands, Global Gardens
- Size
- 10 to 70 cm in height
- Lifespan
- Perennial (individual bulbs live for a few years but continuously produce clonal offsets for decades)
- Active
- diurnal
- Threats
- Fungal infections (such as tulip fire), bulb rot, and herbivory by rodents and deer.
- Safe to approach?
- Harmless to admire, but handle with care. The sap and bulbs contain tuliposides which can cause allergic contact dermatitis ('tulip fingers') and are toxic if ingested by humans or pets. Wash hands after handling bulbs.
Tulipa gesneriana , the Didier's tulip or garden tulip , is a species of plant in the lily family, cultivated as an ornamental in many countries because of its large, showy flowers. This tall, late-blooming species has a single blooming flower and linear or broadly lanceolate leaves. This is a complex hybridized neo-species, and can also be called Tulipa × gesneriana . Most of the cultivars of tulip are derived from Tulipa gesneriana . It has become naturalised in parts...
Photo: Igor Balashov, CC-BY, via iNaturalist
Plain-text version: /species/f414d37f-d458-44b5-ad51-d2b9da3a2510.md