Wild Tulips of Kazakhstan.

"Stones of all times and all destinies
Now the garden is covered, the stream is blind...
Qais and Leyli entered Irem in the crowd,
Everyone liked his tulips,
But their hearts are like a tulip:
In burns from love wounds"

Alisher Navoi. Poem "Layli and Majnun".

 Kazakhstan Tulips Tours. 

Historical information about Regelii tulip.
Regelii tulip was described in 1887 by Andrei Nikolaevich Krasnov (1862 - 1914), an outstanding Russian botanist-geographer, who in 1886 explored the Chu-Ili mountains, where he collected this species in the Anrakhay tract. The species is named after Eduard Ludwigovich Regel (1815 - 1892), director of the St. Petersburg Botanical Garden.
A brief description of Regelii tulip.
The most original of all Kazakh tulips. Bulb up to 2.5 cm in diameter, with dark brown leathery scales. The stem is very short, strong, not drooping. The leaf is usually one, oblong, less often - oval, gray, often with a brown tint. Its outer surface has many parallel ridge-like outgrowths, which creates a structure similar to corrugated fabric.
The flower, as a rule, is also solitary, small, up to 3 cm tall. The tepals are white on the inside with a clearly demarcated yellow spot, the outer ones are light purple along the back. Filaments pubescent, like anthers, yellow.
The increase in the number of flowers and leaves observed by Z.P. Bochantseva when cultivated, in nature is also not rare - out of almost 2000 individuals of this species that we examined in different years, 1.8% had 2, less often 3 leaves and 2 or 3 flowers.
The fruit is 1.5 - 3.2 cm long and up to 1.8 cm wide, the number of normally developed seeds is up to 180. Reproduction is seed, very rarely - vegetative.
Phenology of Tulip Regelii.
Blossoms from late March to mid-April, bears fruit in late May - June.
Ecology of Tulip Regelii.
Rocky, gravelly slopes and talus (800 - 1100 m above sea level).
Distribution of Regelii tulip in Kazakhstan.
Only the Chu-Ili mountains (the eastern part of the Almaty and western Zhambyl regions). endemic species.
Cultivation of Tulip Regelii.
Tested in Tashkent and St. Petersburg. Everywhere weakly stable. In Almaty, the individuals transferred by bulbs bloomed for 3 - 4 years, then vegetated without the formation of a generative shoot for at least 10 years.
The practical significance of the Regel tulip. A very valuable species for rock gardens. The selection is not used. In the experiment of V.V. Voronin (1987) by crossing comrade Albert and comrade Greig with this species, unsimilar seeds were obtained.
When using Comrade Greig as a mother plant, germinating seeds were obtained, but several seedlings developed very slowly and apparently fell out in subsequent years.
Protection of Regelii tulip in Kazakhstan.
Listed in the Red Book. There are no protected areas within the range. It is necessary to speed up the creation of the Anrakhay Reserve.

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

Photos by
Alexander Petrov.