TULIP

The species are perennials from bulbs, the tunicate bulbs are often produced at the ends of stolon and covered with glabrous to variously hairy papery coverings. The species include short low-growing plants with high upright plants that grow from 10 to 70 centimeters (4-27 in) tall. They can even grow in the cold and snow in winter. Plants are typically 2 to 6 leaves, with some species, which has up to 12 sheets. The cauline leaves are strap-shaped, waxy-coated, usually light to medium green and alternately arranged. Blades are somewhat fleshy and linear to oblong shape.

The large flowers are produced in the countryside or subscapose stalks usually lack bracts. Stems have no leaves to a few magazines, with large species, which has some leaves and smaller species have none. Typical species has a flower per stem, but a few species have up to four flowers. The colorful and attractive cup-shaped flowers have three leaves, three sepals, which usually called tepals because they are almost identical. The six petaloid tepals are often marked near the bases with darker markings. The flowers have six basifixed, separates the stock with filaments shorter than tepals and stigma are districtly 3-lobed. Ovary is superior to three chambers. 3 angled fruits are leathery textured capsules, elliptical to subglobose in the form, which contains numerous flat disc-shaped seeds in two rows per locul.

Although tulips are associated with Holland, both flower and its name is derived in the Ottoman Empire. The tulip, or Lale (from the Persian لاله, lâleh) as it is known in Turkey, is a flower indigenous to Iran, Afghanistan, Turkey and other parts of Central Asia. Having been described in a letter from the Dutch Ambassador to Turkey in the 16th century, Ogier Ghiselin the Busbecq, who also was a big flower species enthusiast, tulips were brought to Europe in the 16th century, the word tulip, which earlier in English appeared in such forms as Tulipa or tulipant, entered the language in the form of French tulip and its outmoded form of tulip or by means of modern Latin Tulipa, from Ottoman Turkish tülbend, "muslin, gauze." (The English word Turban, first recorded in English in the 16th century, can also be traced to the Ottoman Turkish tülbend.)

Tulips come from mountainous areas with temperate climate and the need for a period of cool dormancy. They do best in climates with long cool springs and early summers, but they are often grown as spring blooming annual plantings in warmer areas in the world. The bulbs are typically planted in late summer and fall, usually 10 to 20 centimeters (4 to 8 inches) deep, depending on the type planted in well-draining soil. In parts of the world who do not have long cool springs and early summers, the bulbs are often planted up to 12 inches deep, this gives some protection from the heat of summer and tends to force the plants to regenerate one large bulb each year instead of many small businesses do not thrive. This can extend the usefulness of plants in warmer areas for a few years, but does not prevent the degradation of the bulb size and eventual death of plants.

Tulips can be propagated by offsets, seeds or micro propagation [3]. Steps and tissue culture techniques using asexual propagation, they are used to produce genetic clones of the parent plant, which maintains cultivar integrity. Seed raised plants show greater variation, and seeds are most often used to disseminate species and subspecies or used to create new hybrids. Many tulip species can cross pollinate with each other when the wild tulip populations overlap with other species or subspecies, they often hybridize and produce populations of ready-mixed concrete. Most tulip cultivars are complex hybrids and sterile; these plants that produce seeds produce offspring very different from the parents.

In horticulture, tulips are divided into fifteen groups mainly based on the morphology of the flower and plant size. [4]

* Single early group - with cup-shaped single flowers, no larger than 8 cm across (3 inches). The Bloom early to mid season. Growing 15 to 45 inches tall.
* Double early group - with fully double flowers, bowl-shaped to 8 cm across. Plants typically grow from 30-40cm high.
* Triumph Group - single cup-shaped flowers up to 6cm long. Plants grow 35-60cm high and bloom mid to late season.
* Darwin hybrid group - single flowers are ovoid in shape and up to 8 cm long. Plants grow 50-70cm high and bloom mid to late season. This group should not be confused with older Darwin tulips - which belongs in the Late Group below.
* Single late group - cup or trophy-shaded flowers up to 8 cm long, some plants produce multi-flowering stems. Plants grow 45-75cm high and bloom in late season.

Tulip growers are using offsets to produce salable plants need a year or more of growth before the plants are large enough to flower; tulips grown from seeds often require five to eight years of growth before the plants are flowering size. Commercial growers harvest bulbs in late summer and grade them in sizes, onion large enough to flower is sorted and sold, while smaller bulbs are sorted into sizes and replanted. Holland is the largest producer of commercially sold plants, which produce as many as 3 billion bulbs a year.