tulip

Tulips are popular spring-flowering garden plants. Millions of tulip bulbs are sold annually and thousands of cultivars are registered (Zonneveld 2009). The common garden tulip (T. gesneriana) and a number of other species (T. bakeri, T. clusiana, T. fosteriana, T. kaufmanniana), as well as a vast array of complex hybrid cultivars, are commonly planted for their spring flowers. Viral infection of tulips can result in odd colored streaks in the flowers. In the early 1600s, these variant flowers, called “broken” tulips, became prized in the Netherlands, widely sought, and worth large sums of money. The ensuing “tulipomania” lead to widespread trading, speculation, and then a sudden market collapse in 1637. (Straley and Utech 2002)