Tulip

Beautiful flower

Tulips were introduced to the Western world by the Viennese ambassador to Turkey, Augier Ghislain de Busbecq, who wrote of seeing the plants in Edirne, Turkey, in 1551 and who later sent some seeds to Austria. The arrival at Antwerp in 1562 of a cargo of tulip bulbs from Constantinople (now Istanbul) marked the beginning of the tulip horticultural industry in Europe. A speculative frenzy over tulips in the Netherlands in 1633–37 is now known as the Tulip Mania.

The tulip produces two or three thick, bluish green leaves that are clustered at the base of the plant. The usually solitary bell-shaped flowers have three petals and three sepals. There are six free stamens, and the three-lobed ovary is terminated by a sessile three-lobed stigma. The fruit is a capsule with many seeds. Many garden tulips can be propagated only by their scaly bulbs.