Tulipa sprengeri, or Sprenger's tulip, is a wild tulip from the Pontic coast of Turkey. It is quite rare and possibly extinct in the wild, but widely cultivated as an ornamental. Daniel Hall put it into the Kolpakowskiana group, later in the "solitary species". Wessel Marais placed it in section Tulipa because of its naked filament. Genetically, it seems to belong to the section Eriostemones, even if it does not have a hairy filament, normally seen as a defining characteristic, whereas glabrous filaments are typical of the Tulipa-group. It is diploid. The locus typicus is Amasya. Identification and synonyms The plant is easy to identify. Synonyms: T. brachyanthera Frey., described by Josef Franz Freyn in 1896 collected by J. J. Manissadjian in Amasya in 1894. Description The tunic of the bulb is papery, glabrous, chestnut-coloured and only slightly hairy near the stem. The five to six leaves are linear-lanceolate, channeled, bright green and up to 25 cm long. The stem is 20-30, sometimes up to 40 cm long. There is only one flower per bulb, the buds are upright and bright green. The flower is bright red without a basal blotch. The obovate tepals are long and pointed, the oblong-elliptic outer tepals slightly shorter and light brown or yellowish on the outside, sometimes there is a green seam along the midrib, widening towards the tip. They are very narrow on the base, often leaving a gap. The flower itself is funnel-, later star-shaped. The filaments are glabrous, bright red at the top, pale yellow at base, 19–22 mm long, ca. 1 mm wide at tip, the swollen base is 3–4 mm wide. The anthers are yellow. In England, it flowers in May and early June, the latest of the species tulips. The flowering time in the wild is unknown. History The plant was introduced to Europe by the German gardener Mühlendorff in 1892, who discovered it near Amasya. It is named after Carl Sprenger, a commercial gardener, who also published a description of the plant. The first scientific description was produced by J. Gilbert Baker in 1894 in The Gardeners' Chronicle. Mühlendorff sent bulbs to the nursery of Damman&Cie near Naples in Italy, which then supplied numerous bulbs to European gardeners between 1895 and 1898. The Armenian teacher J. J. Manissadijan from Merzifon supplied bulbs to the Dutch company Van Tubergen and John Hoog. He also sold other rare plants,