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 The botanical name for tulips, Tulipa, is derived from the Turkish word tulpend or turban, which the flower resembles. Wild tulips are native to Turkey and western and central Asia, with only a few species occurring in Europe.
Many people think of Holland as the home of the tulip. In fact tulips were unknown there until about the 16th century. Many cultivated varieties were widely grown in Turkey long before they were introduced to European gardens.
The tulip is a native of the Tien-Shan and Pamir-alai Mountain Ranges near Islamabad. Tulips spread to China and Mongolia from this point, and from there entered the far reaches of Europe. The Turkish Empire is greatly renowned for having the tulips that now decorate the Netherlands, and the Turks were known as cultivators of this flower through Persia and Asia from as early as 1,000 A.D. |
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 The botanist Clusius is credited with first growing tulips from seed sent from Turkey. In 1593 he became Professor of Botany at the University of Leiden and planted tulips in his garden there. They were soon widely distributed throughout Holland and began appearing elsewhere in Europe.
So popular did these bulbs become in Holland that "tulipomania" developed early in the 17th century. People began speculating in bulbs of new colors and unusual shapes and paying extravagant prices for them. For one bulb, the seller was reported to receive two loads of wheat, four fat oxen, eight fat pigs, twelve fat sheep, two hogsheads of wine, four barrels of beer, two barrels of butter, 1000 pounds of cheese, a bed, a suit of clothes and a silver beaker. |
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