Tracing the introduction history of the tulip that went wild (Tulipa sylvestris) in sixteenth-century Europe
Tulipa sylvestris , commonly called the “wild tulip”, was introduced from the Mediterranean to northern Europe in the sixteenth century and became widely naturalized. Research has focused on tulips that came from the Ottoman Empire, but the introduction path of this native European, early ornamental...
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Veröffentlicht in: | Scientific reports 2022-06, Vol.12 (1), p.9786-9786, Article 9786 |
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Sprache: | eng |
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Zusammenfassung: | Tulipa sylvestris
, commonly called the “wild tulip”, was introduced from the Mediterranean to northern Europe in the sixteenth century and became widely naturalized. Research has focused on tulips that came from the Ottoman Empire, but the introduction path of this native European, early ornamental tulip is unclear, and so is its taxonomic status: three subspecies are provisionally accepted, sometimes treated as species. Here we elucidate the history of introduction of
T. sylvestris
and discuss its taxonomy based on our historical findings. The first bulbs came from Bologna (northern Italy) and Montpellier (southern France) in the 1550–1570 s. Several renowned botanists were involved in their introduction, namely Gessner, Wieland, Aldrovandi, De Lobel, Clusius, and Dodoens. There were various introduction routes, including one from Spain which was apparently unsuccessful. The strong sixteenth-century Flemish botanical network facilitated the introduction and naturalization of
T. sylvestris
across Europe. Based on the latest tulip taxonomy, the diploid subspecies
australis
is native in the Mediterranean, and the tetraploid
sylvestris
is naturalized over Europe, but our historical findings show that both
sylvestris
and
australis
were introduced to northern Europe. This underlines the need to reconsider the taxonomic status of
T. sylvestris
, highlighting the importance of botanical history in understanding the complex taxonomy of naturalized cultivated plants. |
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ISSN: | 2045-2322 2045-2322 |
DOI: | 10.1038/s41598-022-13378-9 |