Tulipa urumiensis - Botanical Tulip

Tulipa urumiensis is the smallest of all known tulip species. It often produces several star-shaped flowers on each stem. Their pale yellow petals are beautifully streaked with brown-purple and olive on the outside. While they may not be the brightest, their corollas are graceful and bloom in early spring amidst a green backdrop. This variety is ideal for rockeries, planters, or borders, where it spreads over time into a carpet of colour. It proves to be vigorous, faithful, prolific and undemanding and returns each year.

Botanical tulip urumiensis belongs to the lily family. This species, native to western Iran, will not exceed 10 cm (4in) high when flowering. Its foliage is vibrant and vivid green, fairly narrow to almost ribbon-like, abundant and very healthy. The slightly fragrant flowers are solitary or grouped in 3 or 4 in March-April, earlier or later depending on the climate. They are carried by short stems which emerge well from the foliage. At full bloom in the sun, they reveal golden-yellow stamens. They close in the evening and when the sun goes in. This tulip naturalises easily in well-drained, soil which is dry in summer, through the production of bulblets and self-seeding.

Botanical tulips do not degenerate over time like large-flowered tulips. They can remain in place for several years without any special care and thrive in borders and rockeries. They can be planted en masse, in a lawn or flowerbed, with Tulipa tarda or Tulipa clusiana. To create colourful scenes, they can also be planted with various small bulbs: Crocus, Ipheion uniflorum, small-flowered Narcissus, Muscari, Puschkinia, Cyclamen coum, etc. These tulips are unparalleled in bringing colour to pots or sunny gardens in spring.

Tulip species are found in most of the Old World, from Western Europe to China and Japan, through Eastern Europe, Asia Minor, and Central Asia. Their distribution area also includes North Africa and the Indian subcontinent. The centre of diversity of the genus is in the Pamir and Hindu Kush mountains and the steppes of Kazakhstan.