Tulips
SHOT 3/22/07 5:32:11 PM - Tulipa commonly called Tulip is a genus of about 100 species of bulbous flowering plants in the family Liliaceae. The native range of the species include southern Europe, north Africa, and Asia from Anatolia and Iran in the east to northeast of China. The centre of diversity of the genus is in the Pamir and Hindu Kush mountains and the steppes of Kazakhstan. A number of species and many hybrid cultivars are grown in gardens, used as pot plants or as fresh cut flowers. The species are perennials from bulbs, the tunicate bulbs are often produced on the ends of stolons and covered with glabrous to variously hairy papery coverings. The species include short low growing plants to tall upright plants, growing from 10 to 70 centimeters (4?27 in) tall. Plants with typically 2 to 6 leaves, with some species having up to 12 leaves. Although tulips are associated with Holland, both the flower and its name originated in the Ottoman Empire. The tulip is actually not a Dutch flower as many people tend to believe. The tulip, or "Lale" as it is called in Turkey, is a flower indigenous to Iran, Afghanistan, Turkey and other parts of Central Asia..(Photo by Marc Piscotty / © 2007)
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