Existence of Wild tulips today

While researching the origin story of tulips I stumbled upon an interesting and literally brand-new discovery in the tulip world that I thought would be neat to share.

First, we must understand that while we generally associate tulips with Europe, more specifically The Netherlands, they are actually believed to be native to Central Asia. Tulips were originally discovered growing wild and then over time have been isolated, bred, and cultivated to be the flower we are all familiar with today. There are many wild varieties of tulips still found today growing mainly in The Balkans, Greece, Turkey, and Central Asia. According to researchers at the University of Cambridge, “We think there are about 90–96 wild species globally”. More specifically, researchers believe around 63 of these tulips are native to Central Asia. These wild tulip varieties are actively being studied, sampled, and preserved by to both conserve and to increase overall understanding of the species.

It may be a surprise to find out that in 2023, scientists and researchers are still actively discovering new species that have never been formally identified before. According to Brett Wilson, a leading contributor to modern tulip research, “Finding a new species is, surprisingly not altogether that rare, with over 500 new species described by scientists at the Natural History Museum in London in 2021.” Fifteen new species of tulips have been discovered in the last 10 years.

Discovery of a Tulip

In 2019, a group of researchers were on an expedition in the mountainous Toktogul area of Kyrgyzstan and came across a curious-looking tulip with unique features, including an elongated tunic, which they had not expected to see. They took samples of the tulip to later have them analyzed and tested in a lab.

Map of Asia highlighting location of Kyrgyzstan — Map of Asia highlighting the nation of *Kyrgyzstan- where Tulipa toktogulica was discovered.*

Tulipa Toktogulica was found in and named after the Toktogul area of Kyrgyzstan.

A procedure was done to extract DNA from the tulip and the DNA was subsequentially tested. Initial sequencing of the DNA revealed that the tulip was indeed a variety that had not been identified before.

Over the next couple of years, more samples were obtained and more testing was done. A new species of tulip had been discovered! Tulipa toktogulica was named and entered into the official databases.

an endangered species

Tulipa toktogulica was named for the Toktogul region from which it was discovered, and has been deemed to be an endangered species by the IUCN.

The IUCN - which stands for International Union for the Conservation of Nature, publishes a Red List of Threatened Species. According to their website “The IUCN Red List is a critical indicator of the health of the world’s biodiversity. Far more than a list of species and their status, it is a powerful tool to inform and catalyse action for biodiversity conservation and policy change, critical to protecting the natural resources we need to survive…The IUCN Red List is used by government agencies, wildlife departments, conservation-related non-governmental organisations (NGOs), natural resource planners, educational organisations, students, and the business community.”

Side note: The IUCN has a really neat website that’s worth checking out. You can type Tulipa (or anything else you may be interested in) into the search bar to see a wealth of information about all of the applicable species.