Wild Tulips of Kazakhstan.

“The bubble logic driving tulipomania has since acquired a name: “the greater fool theory.” Although by any conventional measure it is folly to pay thousands for a tulip bulb (or for that matter an Internet stock), as long as there is an even greater fool out there willing to pay even more, doing so is the most logical thing in the world” 

 Michael Pollan, The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World.

 Kazakhstan Tulips Tours. 

Tulipa regelii Krasn. 5 - 10 cm tall, bulb ovoid, 1,5 - 2,5 cm thick, with brown, coriaceous, adpressed by hairy tunics at the apex and at the base inside.
Stem is glabrous; one leaf, stem-clasping, elliptic, acute, glabrous, with longitudinal twisting pectinate blotch, 1,5 - 3 cm wide. One flower, has weak but pleasant smell. Perianth lobes are white, yellow at the base, 2 - 2,5 cm long, acutate or blunt-pointed, the outer are lanceolate, reddish or dingy-violet on the outside, nearly 2 times shorter than inner, the inner are oblong, ciliated at the base.
Stamens are nearly 2 times shorter than perianth; filaments are hairy, anthers are linear-oblong, 5 - 6 mm long; ovary is little shorter than stamens, with short style. Flowering time in the beginning of April.
Distribution in Kazakhstan: Endemic; grows on red clay soils, rubble slopes and plateaus.
Occurs in Chu-Ili Mountains. Registered in the Red Book of Kazakhstan.

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

Photos
Alexander Petrov.