7. Tulipa L., Sp. Pl. 305. 1753. Gen. Pl. Ed. 5. 145. 1754; Baker in J. Linn. Soc. 14: 275; Boiss., Fl. Or. 5:191. 1882; Hook.f., Fl. Brit. Ind. 6: 354. 1892; A. D. Hall, Gen. Tulipa 1. 1940; S. Dasgupta & Deb in Candollea 40: 157. 1985; Rech. f., Fl. Iran. 165:76. 1990; Xinqi & H. V. Mordak in Zhengyi & P. H. Raven, Fl. China 24: 123. 2000.
S.I. Ali
Department of Botany, University of Karachi, Karachi-75270, Pakistan
Perennial herbs. Bulb little below the soil; tunics, brown, thick, coriaceous, drying on maturity, glabrous or variously lined with hairs. Stem long or short. Leaves 1-2 (-8), cauline, without distincts midrib. Flowers 2 (-8) in raceme or solitary. Bracts usually absent. Perianth often campanulate, sometimes infundibular, white, yellow or red. Tepals 6, in 2 whorls, slightly dissimilar in shape, glabrous or pubescent at the base. Nectaries absent. Stamens 6, much shorter than tepals, often unequal, filaments broader at the base, adnate at the base of the tepals. Anthers basifixed, dehiscence lateral. Pistil syncarpous; ovary trilocular, axile placentation, style absent, or short, stigma 3-lobed. Fruit a capsule, seeds numerous, often flat, ± triangular.
A genus with c. 100 species, mainly distributed in temperate Eurasia to Central Asia; represented in our area by 6 species.
