Botanical excursions of Kazakhstan.

"May I be damned if I plant tulips!
May I be damned if I touch them!
A hundred times I've been smitten by a tulip
And a hundred times fell victim to deceit and deceit."

Baba Tahir. "Both heaven and earth..." End of X – XI centuries.

Tours and excursions behind Tulips in Kazakhstan.

Tulipa bifloriformis Vved. 10 - 25 cm long, bulb ovoid, 1,5 - 2 cm thick, with brown thin-skinned, dense arachnoid-woolly tunics inside. Stem is pubescent at the apex, rarely glabrate; leaves 2 in number, straddled, deflexed, glabrate, ciliate, lance-linear, the lower is wider, 6 - 15 mm wide, usually not exceeding the flower. 
Flowers 2 - 8 in number, rarely 1 or more than 8, drooped in bud. Perianth lobes are white, yellow at the base, 11 - 20 (30) mm long, acute, the outer are oblong-lanceolate, dingy-violet on the outside, with bread at the base, 1,5 times narrower than inner, the inner are oblong, acuminate, narrowed gradually to the base and slightly barbate, long-ciliated.
Stamens are nearly 2 times shorter than perianth, filaments are yellow, with dense ring of long hairs at broadened base, anthers are linear-oblong, 5 - 6 mm long, violet, rarely yellow, with very short micro.
Ovary is little shorter than stamen, with short style; fruit case is erected, oblong, 1 - 1,5 cm broad, 1,5 - 2,5 cm long, with short tip. Flowering time at the end of March – April. Distribution in Kazakhstan: It grows at forest foothills.
It occurs in Balkhash-Alakul and Turkestan floristic areas, in Chu-Ili and Karatau Mountains, in Western Tien-Shan.

Authority
“Tulips of Kazakhstan”. Almaty, LTD “Almatykitap baspasy”. 2010, 272 p. Illustrated.

Photos by
Alexander Petrov.