Chasing Tulips Across the World: An Eight-Year Journey from Mountains to Publication

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Georgy coming towards a Tulipa korolkowii in full bloom in Batken, Kyrgyzstan. In October 2018, I started a PhD on tulip taxonomy and conservation at the University of Cambridge with a question that sounds simple and turns out to be anything but: what actually is a tulip species? Depending on whose classification you followed, there … Continue reading Chasing Tulips Across the World: An Eight-Year Journey from Mountains to Publication →

Experts in front of the lens

In Spring 2025, members of the IUCN SSC Wild Tulip Specialist Group visited Kyrgyzstan primarily for outreach and media purposes. The expedition included attending the Tulip Festival in Bishkek and filming wild tulips in remote areas. The team experienced the beauty of an array of diverse tulip species and the stunning landscapes of Central Asia on their journey.

A code red for Humanity… but the impacts of climate change also threaten the future of wild tulips

Wild tulips are threatened by many localised activities such as livestock overgrazing, mining, urbanisation, and opportunistic collection of flowers and bulbs. These are currently damaging specific populations and causing numbers of individuals to decline. Yet what if there was a threat that occurred across the whole distribution of tulips? What if there was something that … Continue reading A code red for Humanity… but the impacts of climate change also threaten the future of wild tulips →