''Tulipa armena'' is a species of

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. The term "angiosperm" is derived from the Greek words ('container, vessel') and ('seed'), and refers to those plants th ...

in the

Liliaceae The lily family, Liliaceae, consists of about 15 genera and 610 species of flowering plants within the order Liliales. They are monocotyledonous, perennial, herbaceous, often bulbous geophytes. Plants in this family have evolved with a fair ...

family. It is referred to by the common name Armenian tulip, and is native to the historical Armenian Highlands as the name implies; current regions of

Armenia Armenia (), , group=pron officially the Republic of Armenia,, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of Western Asia.The UNbr>classification of world regions places Armenia in Western Asia; the CIA World Factbook , , and ''Ox ...

, modern day

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

South Caucasus The South Caucasus, also known as Transcaucasia or the Transcaucasus, is a geographical region on the border of Eastern Europe and Western Asia, straddling the southern Caucasus Mountains. The South Caucasus roughly corresponds to modern Arme ...

, and

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of th ...

Description

''Tulipa armena'' is extremely variable. The

bulb In botany, a bulb is structurally a short stem with fleshy leaves or leaf basesBell, A.D. 1997. ''Plant form: an illustrated guide to flowering plant morphology''. Oxford University Press, Oxford, U.K. that function as food storage organs duri ...

has a papery

tunic A tunic is a garment for the body, usually simple in style, reaching from the shoulders to a length somewhere between the hips and the knees. The name derives from the Latin ''tunica'', the basic garment worn by both men and women in Ancient Rome ...

that is not very hairy. The stems are between eight and 25 cm long, the 3–6 leaves are broad, scimitar-shaped, hairy or smooth and often have wavy edges. They are grey-green, but with a red overlay. They can be up to 20 cm long. The large solitary flowers are cup- or bowl-shaped and very variable. Some are red with a dark violet, black or dark green basal blotch, sometimes striped and mottled in yellow, others yellow, in the red form, sometimes the black basal blotch has a yellow border. The

tepal A tepal is one of the outer parts of a flower (collectively the perianth). The term is used when these parts cannot easily be classified as either sepals or petals. This may be because the parts of the perianth are undifferentiated (i.e. of very ...

s are normally oval. The

filament The word filament, which is descended from Latin ''filum'' meaning " thread", is used in English for a variety of thread-like structures, including: Astronomy * Galaxy filament, the largest known cosmic structures in the universe * Solar filament ...

s are black or blackish purple, the

anther The stamen (plural ''stamina'' or ''stamens'') is the pollen-producing reproductive organ of a flower. Collectively the stamens form the androecium., p. 10 Morphology and terminology A stamen typically consists of a stalk called the filam ...

s yellow or black. ''Tulipa armena'' is placed in the subgenus ''Tulipa''. In Turkey, the subspecies ''lycica'' and ''armena'' are differentiated by the hairs on the bulb. ''Tulipa armena'' is easily confused with ''

Tulipa julia Tulips (''Tulipa'') are a genus of spring-blooming perennial herbaceous bulbiferous geophytes (having bulbs as storage organs). The flowers are usually large, showy and brightly coloured, generally red, pink, yellow, or white (usually in warm ...

'', which has a hairier tunic.

Habitat

The Armenian tulip was found from Northeast

through

Transcaucasia The South Caucasus, also known as Transcaucasia or the Transcaucasus, is a geographical region on the border of Eastern Europe and Western Asia, straddling the southern Caucasus Mountains. The South Caucasus roughly corresponds to modern Arme ...

(

and

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

) to northwestern

. It grows on rocky mountain slopes between 1000- 2700m ASL and flowers between April and June. It also occurs on the

Marmaris Marmaris () is a port city and tourist resort on the Mediterranean coast, located in Muğla Province, southwest Turkey, along the shoreline of the Turkish Riviera. Although Marmaris is known for its honey, its main source of income is internationa ...

peninsula in Southwestern Turkey at much lower elevations. It grows in steppe areas on alkalic soils with a high humus-content.

Synonyms

''Tulipa armena'' was first described by Edmund Boissier in 1859, the locus typicus is located in Northeast Turkey. Populations found in the

Karabakh Karabakh ( az, Qarabağ ; hy, Ղարաբաղ, Ġarabaġ ) is a geographic region in present-day southwestern Azerbaijan and eastern Armenia, extending from the highlands of the Lesser Caucasus down to the lowlands between the rivers Kura (Caspia ...

mountain range in Armenia and Azerbaijan have been called ''T. karabachensis'', but this is regarded as a synonym of ''T. armena''. Plants from Eastern Turkey and Northwest Iran with a hairy tunic and longer stems have been described as ''T. willmottiae'' Freyn. ''T. mucronata'' Fomin, ''T. karabachensis'' Grossh. pro parte, ''T. confusa'' Gabrielian may also be synonyms of ''T. armena''. The name ''T. galatica'' has been used for the yellow variety without basal blotch. In contrast, '' Tulipa gumusanica'' has been confirmed as a separate species.

Uses

The Armenian tulip is used as a garden plant. It needs dry, hot summers and should be grown in free draining soil and full sun. In England, it flowers in April.

References

Sources

* * {{Taxonbar, from=Q7852084

armena Armena is a hamlet in Alberta, Canada within Camrose County. It is located approximately northwest of Camrose along Highway 21 and has an elevation of . The hamlet is located in Census Division No. 10 and in the federal riding of Crowfoot. ...

Flora of Iran Flora of Turkey Garden plants Taxa named by Pierre Edmond Boissier Armenian Highlands