Tulipa gesneriana L. or "Didier's tulip" is a plant belonging to the family of Liliaceae

Liliaceae

The Liliaceae, or the lily family, is a family of monocotyledons in the order Liliales. Plants in this family have linear leaves, mostly with parallel veins but with several having net venation , and flower arranged in threes. Several have bulbs, while others have rhizomes...

. This species has uncertain origins, possibly from Asia

Asia

Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...

, and has become naturalised in south-west Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

. Most of the cultivated species, subspecies and cultivars of tulip are derived from Tulipa gesneriana.

Tulip collecting mania

Tulip mania

Tulip mania or tulipomania was a period in the Dutch Golden Age during which contract prices for bulbs of the recently introduced tulip reached extraordinarily high levels and then suddenly collapsed...

 swept through Europe and particularly Holland between 1634 and 1637. Bulbs were exchanged for land, livestock, and houses. A single bulb, the Semper Augustus, fetched 6 000 florins in Haarlem

Haarlem

Haarlem is a municipality and a city in the Netherlands. It is the capital of the province of North Holland, the northern half of Holland, which at one time was the most powerful of the seven provinces of the Dutch Republic...

, and tulips were routinely traded on stock exchanges throughout Holland. At that time, a florin could purchase a bushel of wheat. As with speculation in any commodity, fortunes were made and lost.

The flower and bulb can cause dermatitis through the allergen

Allergen

An allergen is any substance that can cause an allergy. In technical terms, an allergen is a non-parasitic antigen capable of stimulating a type-I hypersensitivity reaction in atopic individuals....

, tuliposide A, even though the bulbs may be consumed with little ill-effect. The sweet-scented bisexual flowers appear during April and May. Bulbs are extremely resistant to frost, and can tolerate temperatures well below freezing - a period of low temperature is necessary to induce proper growth and flowering, triggered by an increase in sensitivity to the phytohormone auxin

Auxin

Auxins are a class of plant hormones with some morphogen-like characteristics. Auxins have a cardinal role in coordination of many growth and behavioral processes in the plant's life cycle and are essential for plant body development. Auxins and their role in plant growth were first described by...

.

The bulbs may be dried and pulverised and added to cereals or flour.

Synonyms

• Tulipa suaveolens (Hayek. non Roth.)
• Tulipa didieri (Jordan.)