Tours behind tulips Kaufmana in Kazakhstan.

“I have not comprehended all your beauty.
Tulips from mountain steeps come to me in verse,
But you are more beautiful than them, besides - they bloom for a week,
And you are the hope of all my countless days.

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

Tulips tour in Kazakhstan.

Tulipa berkariensis are met on the humid slopes and meadows, in the bushes and in the apple-tree forests. Like the above-mentioned species, Tulipa berkariensis were described at the end of the last century by Russian scientist E.Regel by the specimens grown in Petersburg from the bulbs collected near Aksu-Zhabagly – in Karatau Mountain.
Tulips turned to be very plastic and changing; and thanks to this feature it was possible to get various colours: from red and cherry colours to light-blue and violet. In selection this species of tulips is highly evaluated because of the early flowering periods and variety of different natural shapes.
Even in the small area in the reserve there are more than ten species of berkariensis tulips, which have different sizes, shapes and colours. Especially effective are the specimens with bright-yellow and crimson flowers, which can compete with many other species of tulips.
Tulipa berkariensis Regel. 10 - 40 cm long, ovoid bulb, 1,5 - 4 cm thick, with dark-brown coriaceous, more or less accumbent by pilose tunics inside. Stem in the top is more or less pubescent; leaves 2 - 3 in number, reclinated or slightly deflexed, glabrous, ciliated, usually not exceeding the flower, the lower leaf is oblong or oblong-elliptic, 2 - 6 cm broad.
One flower; perianth is white inside, yellow towards the base or yellowish, acute or blunt-pointed, the outer on the back are dingy-violet or reddish-violet (sometimes individuals with red or pink flowers may occur).
Little longer than inner, 2,5 - 8 cm long, lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate, the inner are oblong-elliptic; stamens 2 times shorter than perianth. Filaments are glabrous, yellow, anthers are yellowish, linear, 3 - 4 times longer than filaments, curled; ovary is little shorter than stamens, with nearly sessile stigma; fruit case is 1,5 - 2 cm wide and 3 - 6 cm long.
Flowering Tulipa berkariensis.
Time in April – July (depending on altitude).
Distribution Tulipa berkariensis in Kazakhstan.
Inhabits on rocky slopes to alpine belt of the mountains. Occur in Karatau, Western Tien-Shan and in western part of Kyrghyz Alatau.
Registered in the Red Book of Kazakhstan.

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

Photos
Alexander Petrov.