Tulipa 2021

[Christian G.]

Most tulips are not really popular with pollinators here but Tulipa clusiana 'Chitral Vale' / aitchisonii clusianoides are an exception and attract masses of white spotted rose beetles (Oxythyrea funesta) which devastate the flowers by gnawing off the stamina.

Very nice plants with probably the most interesting of all tulip flower blotches but honestly I see no difference between these two clones - except for the price tag.
They look the same, flower at the same time and attract the same pollinators.

They are however fundamentally different from the usual T. clusiana which forms larger plants with thinner, longer flowerstalks, smaller flowers and blooms several weeks later.

Zonneveld (2009) confirmed findings from Sir Daniel Hall (1940) that T. aitchisonii / Chitral Vale are diploids in contrast to other clusiana clones from the wild including the yellow var. chrysantha / f. diniae being tetraploids. The usual garden form of T. clusiana found in commerce and widely distributed in Europe is pentaploid and probably a single clone. To make things even more complicated there are also triploid crosses from diploid and tetraploid forms like 'Tubergen's Gem'.

[Claire Cockcroft]

Tulipa saxatilis ssp. bakeri has been a strong performer.  Grown from seed planted in 2010.

[Yann]

Tulipa butkovii, intense red

[Karaba]

Tulipa butkovii, intense red

Nice form and colour, the association is quite original for a tulip !

[Christian G.]

The only other tulip to attract white spotted rose beetles (Oxythyrea funesta) was Tulipa ×tschimganica, a natural hybrid between T. dubia und T. kaufmanniana from Kyrgizstan.
They're comparably big tulips and not as compressed as most of the species in my orchard.

[Gail]

If you don't like hybrids you should look away now. I went to Arundel Castle on Wednesday, a cold, dull day but 60,000 tulips have a mesmerizing effect!

[Gail]

[Gail]

[Gail]

They also have a magical cork oak;

and the best stumpery I've seen;

[Christian G.]

That's amazing!
Are they replanting all the tulips each year or are they naturalized?

I live next to Schönbrunn Park in Vienna and sadly they are doing basically nothing with tulips and spring flowers anymore. They just leave the flower beds empty half of the year and the flower arrangements for summer are not spectacular either. It's a shame.

Here my Kolpakowskianae, T. iliensis and 'kolpakowskiana'.
All very similar, almost impossible to tell apart and likely mislabeled as well. T. kolpakowskiana in commerce is said to be a different species, but some taxonomists group all these under T. altaica anyway. My iliensis is a bit smaller and flowers a few days later but it's nothing significant.

[Christian G.]

Tulipa ferganica (?) is not much different, yet I have two distinct clones from Kyrgizstan.

'Fergana Ridge' looks exactly like kolpakowskiana and iliensis plant-wise but the flowers are narrower and never open more than half-way.

'Arslanbob' is much more erect with broader leaves, more greenish compared to the others which have almost turquoise foliage. It flowers more than 3 weeks later when the others are already gone. Flowers look the same though and I see no difference in filaments or ovary in any of these kolpakowskianae to be honest.

[Véronique Macrelle]

finally a flower of Tulipa aximensis! it makes bulbils more easily than flowers ...

[Gail]

That's amazing!
Are they replanting all the tulips each year or are they naturalized?

I assume they replace them each year - it looks as though last year they had just red tulips where this year they are interspersed with Narcissus 'Thalia'.
https://www.arundelcastle.org/event/tulip-festival-2021/

I like the wavy leaves on your T. iliensis.

[Christian G.]

Here many tulip species produce strongly undulate / crispate leaves which apparently is an inducible adaption to high irradiation and drought and not just a genetically fixed trait. Also even within clonal plants some may produce wavy leaves and some straight, while growing next to each other. Some environmental signal must trigger the alternative leaf shape but I cannot see any pattern. Grown in shade many species generally appear to produce less wavy leaves though.

Together with the highly hydrophobic surface it is thought that crispate leaves help to collect water from dew and mist and channel it towards the stem, irrigating the bulb. The waves also may function as 'cooling ribs' and help to prevent overheating of the leaf surface in scorching sunlight, similar to the famous ribs in T. regelii from the deserts of Kazakhstan. And last but not least a wavy or folded leaf only exposes a fraction of its surface to sun at any time, effectively shading itself.

In any case it's not a useful feature for taxonomy, in many populations plants with and without wavy leaves can be found.

Speaking of variability, anther and filament size and color often isn't of much help either.
Look at these 3 flowers of Tulipa ostrowskiana. They are from seeds collected in Trans Ili range, Kyrgizstan and display considerable variation even though they do not just belong to the same species but the same local population.

[Christian G.]

Tulipa hungarica (syn. urumoffii) from Konjavska Planina, western Bulgaria.

It differs significantly from T. hungarica in its locus classicus along the Danube in southwest Romania which has black anthers and also from descriptions of  T. urumoffii which has a different much stronger lobed stigma.

Like with many tulips there is ongoing discussion whether several similar and mostly red 'species' from Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania and northern Greece like T. rhodopea and T. urumoffii all belong to T. hungarica and if they are natural species or neo-tulipae.

From Christenhusz (2013)

This rounded yellow tulip is probably closely allied to T. ×gesneriana and may be one of the parents or may also be a hybrid. It is possible that this taxon escaped during Ottoman occupation of the area. Its origin is unknown and it is therefore often treated as a neo-tulipa, and, if done so, these taxa may be treated under a separate Cultivar Group.

In contrast to the T. scardica group from the balcans no phylogenetic study seems to have been performed on T. hungarica s.l.