Tours behind tulips in the Central Kazakhstan.

“Snow is both sides of the same page
It covers the grave and the tulip” 

Richard L. Ratliff.

Tulips Tours in Kazakhstan.

Tulipa schrenkii Regel (T.gesneriana). 15 - 30 cm tall, bulb ovoid, 1,5 - 3 cm thick, with black-brown, thin-skinned, hairy tunics inside.
Stem is glabrous or pubescent; leaves 3 - 4 in number, more or less deflexed, straddled, glaucous, glabrous or pubescent, not exceeding the flower, the lower is narrow-lanceolate or oblong, 1,5 - 3 cm wide.
One flower; perianth lobes are red, pink, yellow and white with or without black or yellow spot, 2,5 - 5 cm long, usually pointed to pubescent tip, rarely obtuse, the outer are oblong, the inner are oblong-obovate.
Stamens 2 times shorter than perianth, filaments are glabrous, yellow or violet, anthers equal or longer than filaments, ovary is equal or shorter than stamens with nearly sessile stigma.
Fruit case 1 - 1,5 cm wide and 2 - 5 cm long. Flowering time in the beginning of April – beginning of May. Distribution in Kazakhstan: Grows in steppes, semi-deserts and deserts.
It is characterized by wide habitat, but separate populations are widely scattered on the territory of Kazakhstan and often located hundred kilometers one from the other.
Occurs in Obshchy Syrt Spurs, Tobol-Ishim, Precaspian, Aktyubinsk, Embenskiy, Turgai floristic regions, Mugodzhary, Western Uplands, Eastern Uplands and Ulytau.
Registered in the Red Book of Kazakhstan. Note: The second name of this species is Gesner’s Tulip (Tulipa gesneriana L.).

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

Photos
Alexander Petrov