3.4. Tulipa vvedenskyi Botschantz. in Bot. Mater. Gerb. Inst. Bot. Zool. Akad. Nauk Uzbeksk. S.S.R. 14: 3. (1954).

Type:— UZBEKISTAN. Grown in the Botanical Garden of the Academy of Sciences of Uzbek SSR from bulbs collected by Z.P . Botschantzeva in the valley of river Angren, ½ km below of the village Tjurk, 1950, Botschantzeva s.n. (holotype TASH000533!) .

Description:—Bulb ovoid or rarely pyriform, 2–3 cm thick; tunic papery, dark-brown, on the inside sparsely lined with adpressed hairs except for the apex which is thickly hairy; stem 15–40 cm long, glaucous, sometimes with purple-tinged, densely pubescent; leaves (3)4–5, approximate, reflexed, not exceeding the flower, glaucous, undulate, sometimes sparsely pubescent, margins slightly ciliate; basal leaf widely lanceolate, situated at the soil level, to 3–6 cm broad; upper leaf narrow lanceolate, up to 2 cm; flower solitary, cup-shaped to almost star-shaped, sometimes shaped as elegant double cup resembling the flower of T. greigii (but the inner tepals more and the outer ones less reflexed); perigone segments 4–10 cm long, red, light red or orange-red, sometimes yellow or motley, with diffuse, blurry, yellow or more or less dark purple-brown basal blotch; inner segments obovate, apiculate, with a pubescent tip and slightly undulate upper margin; outer segments rhombic-subrhombic, obtuse or acute at apex and gradually tapering to the base; stamens almost three times shorter than perigone; filaments glabrous, dilated towards the base, yellow or brown often brownish in upper half and yellow at the base; anthers yellow or black-violet, longer or almost equal with the filaments, opening rapidly; ovary mostly yellowish-blue or pale green; capsule yellowish, oblong, 2–3 cm broad, up to 9 cm long, with a short beak (Fig. 8B).

General distribution:—South-Western Tian-Shan, endemic to Chatkal and Kurama Ranges (Tajikistan, Uzbekistan).

Distribution in Uzbekistan:—I-1 Western Tian-Shan district (I-1-b Western Chatkal region; I-1-d Kurama region).

Phenology:—Flowering: April–May; fruiting: June–July.

Ecology:—Gravelly and stony slopes, screes and rocks, in middle mountain zone, 1500–2500 m a.s.l.

Etymology:—The species is named after A. Vvedensky (1898–1972), a famous expert on Central Asian flora who treated the genus Tulipa for the «Flora of USSR», «Flora of Uzbekistan », «Flora of Tajikistan » and «Conspectus Florae Asiae Mediae».

Note:—In the protologue, Z.P. Botschantzeva (Botschantzeva 1954: 3) noted that a substitute bulb and some daughter bulbs of this species can penetrate into the soil to a depth of 12 cm; mainly the daughter bulbs remain instead of the mother bulb; their substitute bulbs also can go deeply into the soil next year. A fully grown bulb has one tunic and four scales.

Specimens examined:— UZBEKISTAN: Western Tian-Shan district, Western Chatkal region, Chatkal Range, Chatkal Nature Reserve, Greater Maydantal, gravelly slopes, August 1955, Butkov s.n. (TASH!) ; Chatkal Nature Reserve, Small Maydantal, among the rocks, August 1955, Butkov s.n. (TASH!) ; Akbulak Valley, Karasay, gravelly slopes, 1820–2000 m, 1956, Butkov s.n. (TASH!) ; Akbulak valley, at the confluence with the Serkelisay, gravelly slopes, 1956, Butkov s.n. (TASH!) ; Kurama Range, the pass Kamchik, stony southern slopes, 15 May 1965, Pavlov 127 (MW) ; Angren Valley, Tashbulak River Basin, stony and gravelly slopes, 7 May 2017, Tojibaev s.n. (TASH!) .