Monday 7 July 2014
The tulip is
a perennial, bulbous plant with showy flowers in the genus Tulipa, of
which around 75 wild species are currently accepted and which belongs to the family Liliaceae. The genus's
native range extends west to the Iberian Peninsula, through North Africa to Greece,
the Balkans, Turkey, throughout the Levant (Syria, Israel, Lebanon, Jordan) and
Iran, North to Ukraine, southern Siberia and Mongolia, and east to the
Northwest of China. The tulip's centre
of diversity is in the Pamir, Hindu Kush, and Tien Shan mountains. It is a typical element of steppe and
winter-rain Mediterranean vegetation. A number of species and many hybrid cultivars
are grown in gardens, as potted plants, or as cut flowers. The flowers have six
distinct, basifixed stamens with filaments shorter than the tepals. Each stigma
has three distinct lobes, and the ovaries are superior, with three chambers.
The tulip's seed is a capsule with a leathery covering and an ellipsoid to
globe shape. Each capsule contains numerous flat, disc-shaped seeds in two rows
per chamber. Source
