The Genus Tulipa: Tulips of the World

In recent years, Anna Pavord’s The Tulip (1999) and Richard Wilford’s Tulips: Species and Hybrids for the Gardener (2006), both rightly acclaimed, have given species tulip enthusiasts the kind of information they have been crying out for since A.D. Hall’s landmark publications over half a century earlier. Appetites were refreshed, nurserymen were encouraged, exhibitors brought more pots of tulips to the benches at AGS shows (despite the difficulties of presenting the flowers in peak condition) and only one thing was lacking: a comprehensive and current monograph.The gap has been plugged. With Diana Everett’s The Genus Tulipa: Tulips of the World we now have a superb new survey, immaculately produced and jam-packed with the kind of up-to-date information that botanists and gardeners need. Diana is a tireless traveller and artist, painting tulips in the wilds of Turkey, the Near East and Central Asia. She possesses a rare combination of talents – outstanding ability as a watercolourist and a specialist botanical knowledge. The result is a volume that brings together detailed information on around 78 species, plus a similar number of sub-species and forms, each accompanied by pin-sharp photographs and the author’s accurate and beautiful illustrations. She also takes account of recently described species such as Tulipa kolbintsevii and Tulipa koyuncui. A putative new species, provisionally named Tulipa bactriana, and the now described Tulipa ivasczenkoae (honouring Anna Ivaschenko, whom some AGS members will have met in Kazakhstan) are also touched upon. The supporting material to this taxonomic treatment is especially valuable. With their contribution the taxonomists Michael F. Fay and Maarten J.M. Christenhusz bring classification and species delimitation of the genus into the 21st century. Of particular interest to the grower is Richard Wilford’s helpful chapter on tulip cultivation. The appendices include an alphabetical checklist of the genus Tulipa and its many synonyms, a summary of BenZonneveld’s ground-breaking classification based on DNA analysis (2009), a list of nurseries stocking species tulips and notes on prominent related authors, collectors and growers. All in all, apart from a few minor typographical errors (the proof-readers have struggled with the spelling of Tulipa neustruevae, but they are not the first), this is a model of what a really fine monograph should be. -- John Page * Alpine Diary Journal *