100 Species #37: Tulip

[urbpan]

These tulips (Tulipa gesneriana) are in our side yard, but previous owners have planted them in front and back, as well.

Michael Pollan wrote a very interesting chapter on tulips in his book The Botany of Desire. In it, he pointed out that the tulip plant evolved a beautiful flower to attract the attention of a pollinating insect, and inadvertantly made itself extremely attractive to humans. The history of the tulip in the Netherlands is quite amazing, and I suggest you read Pollan's book.

But what is amazing to me is how difficult it is to find anything about the natural history of this plant. The genus Tulipa in the lily family, there are about 200 species, of which T. gesneriana is the most common cultivated species--though multiple strains and hybrids make this somewhat unclear, and the genus is native to the Old World. I have not found any mention of what the pollinator is, that drove the evolution of this remarkable flower. One imagines that bees would be better suited to entering the tulip cup rather than, say, butterflies, but it remains a mystery to me. I do often see insects visiting the tulip blossoms, apparently grazing on the copious pollen, but perhaps playing a role in spreading pollen from flower to flower.

Comments

[charliemarlowe.livejournal.com]

It was a while ago, but I read a book called Tulip: the Story of a Flower that Made Men Go Mad by a lady named Anna Parvod, and she says that they think the tulip came from Persia-- Apparently it originally was merely a little wildflower-- like the ones you see in Persian art with the pointed petals. I'm not sure about the details-- I read the book a long time ago-- but I think that's the general idea.

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

Thanks for that!

[bedfull-o-books.livejournal.com]

According to the Stuff You Missed in History Class podcast (February 7th of this year), tulips are native to Turkey and Central Asia. The Ottomans domesticated them. They were brought to Europe in the mid-1500s by the amasador for Ferdinand I of Austria to Suleiman the Magnificent.

Podcast can be grabbed from the HowStuffWorks.com web site.