Tulipa bactriana J.de Groot & Tojibaev, 2020

Tojibaev, Komiljon, Dekhkonov, Davron, Ergashov, Ibrokhimjon, Sun, Hang, Deng, Tao & Yusupov, Ziyoviddin, 2022, The synopsis of the genus Tulipa (Liliaceae) in Uzbekistan, Phytotaxa 573 (2), pp. 163-214 : 167-168

1.2. Tulipa bactriana J.de Groot & Tojibaev in Int. Rock Gard. 131: 7. (2020).

Type:— clonal stock G07-1, grown from a wild-collected bulb, and is found in southern Uzbekistan in the valley of the Surxondaryo and Sherabad rivers 37.41. 57.53 N and 67.26. 52.69 E, on an altitude of 420 m (holotype L.3993359) .

Description: —Bulb ovoid, 3 cm diam., attenuate in the upper part; tunic brown, coriaceous, covered in a brown coriaceous tunic, with an elongated nose and a thick coat of felted material inside; stem up to 55 cm (in cultivation), the upper part of stem is covered with short hairs; leaves usually 4, glaucous-green with waved margins are slightly channeled and arched, the margins are partly covered with short hairs, approximate, deflexed, glaucous, ciliate and slightly undulate at margins (less curled than the leaves of T. tubergeniana ); flower solitary; perigone segments bright orange-red with the oblong black / purple blotch surrounded with a pale yellow margin, attenuate, with an acute white tip (equal or almost equal in length in all tepals); inner segments ovate, not as broad as the outer ones; filaments triangular, black with a yellowish base; anthers black; pollen yellow; the straight ovary is green with a pale yellow stigma, a little longer than the stamens; the edge of the lobes is pale purple.

General distribution:—South-Western Pamir-Alay: Sherabad Valley ( Uzbekistan).

Distribution in Uzbekistan:—I-6 Western Hissar district (I-6-e Surkhan-Sherabad region).

Phenology:—Flowering: April; fruiting: May.

Ecology:—Red clays hills and in grass at the foot of these hills. It grows between short grasses at a depth of about 20 cm, 400–600 m.

Etymology:—The species is named after ancient Persian kingdom of Bactria which covered the upper part of the Amu Darya river basin including distribution area of this species ( Fig. 2B ).

Note:—In the first description of the species, the authors assigned it to the T. sect. Tulipanum De Reboul (1847: 60). The species can be recognized in the wild by its long cusps on all the tepals, in contrast with other red flowering species in the same growing area that have only long cusps on the outer tepals. It differs from T. tubergeniana also by the longer stem with long arched and straight leaves; from T. lanata Regel (1884: 647) by its slenderer habit and the covering of the bulb tunic; T. lanata has a thick layer of shaggy long hairs whereas T. bactriana has a woolly coating (de Groot & Tojibaev 2020). In this synopsis, we assign the species to the sect. Lanatae as well as T. tubergeniana .

Specimens examined:—Currently, the species is represented only by the type specimen.

Figures

FIGURE 2. Species of Tulipa sect. Lanatae: A. T. tubergeniana, B. T. bactriana, C. T. lanata. Scale bars, 1 cm.