Seasonal Wild Flowers

Cretan Tulip

Tulipa saxatilis

Liliaceae

March to May

It is scattered from the Midlands southward and is most

common in tyhe South

For a map see the BSBI online atlas for:Cretan Tulip

It is a neophyte from the Southern Aegean in the 17th

Century and reintroduced in the 1860s.

It has become naturalised.in stony and grassy places

and has been known to self seed in the Scillies and

other parts of Cornwall since the mid 1970s..

Cretan Tulip is a bulbous perennial herb growing up to

50cm.

Flowers are yp to 5.5cm acoss and cup-shaped. There are

6 pink/violet sepals each with a distinct yellow basal patch.

There are 6 yellow stamens.

The ovule is green and capsule-like. THere is no style and

the stigmas are white and linear.

Fruits are capsules.

Leaves arebroadly elliptic and linear and up to 35cm long.

Cretal Tulip on Stonmy ground, Wwest Dorset

Flowers and leaves

6 pink sepals and yellow patch at base

Close-up of 6 yellow stamens and white linear stigmas

Close-up of ovule, stigmas anthers and filaments

Side view of tepals and basal yellow patch

Broad elliptic leaves