Tulipa schrenkii was described in 1881, but found years earlier in the South of Russia and Kazakhstan. Tulipa schrenkii is named after Alexander Schrenk, a researcher at the Botanical Garden of St. Petersburg. The story goes that Tulipa schrenkii was taken to Anatolia (Turkey) after the capture of the Crimean port of Sogdak in 1225. During the Ottoman Empire a lot of varieties were bred from Tulipa schrenkii and there were 300.000 flower bulbs planted near the Topkapi Palace in Istanbul during the reign of Sultan Selim II in 1566-74. In this period tulip bulbs have found their way to Europe and eventually to the botanical Gardens of Leiden, the Netherlands. Continue reading at our Tulip Mania mix for further history. Tulipa schrenkii is probably an ancestor of the tulip bulbs which were traded for the price of an Amsterdam canal house in the Golden Age. Tulipa schrenkii is small, only 10 cm and has a beautiful classic shape with long pointy petals. the colour is scarlet with a yellow edge and a yellow heart. |
