Building a tulip
Tulips are popular early bloomers and the best-known representatives of the lily family. There are between 100 and 150 different types of tulips. While the typical garden tulips have been refined in lengthy breeding processes, for example, the wild forest tulip is one of the most natural variants in Germany. Its name is derived from Turkish and means something like turban and describes the characteristic structure.
The bloom with the structure of a turban
The tulip blossom is reminiscent of a turban. Their structure is called threefold. The reason for this is the tripartite arrangement of the individual leaves in a circle.
- Originally the Early bloomer Flowers with exactly six leaves, which stretch calyx-shaped towards the sky. The individual varieties of the plant sometimes have more leaves than this original number.
- The petals overlap at the edges. Three of the leaves enclose the flower on the outside. The three inside sit on the gaps of the three outside. This wreath of leaves protects the pistil and the internal stamens from external influences.
- The tulip also bears six of the stamens. Each of these consists of a filament and an anthers, in which the pollen of the tulip is in turn. This part of the bulb plant is used for reproduction.
- The pistil is the center of the tulip blossom. It is columnar in shape and is composed of stigma and ovary. It consists of three fused petals and has several ovules in its three compartments. After flowering in spring, the pistil thickens. Later it bursts open and lets the seeds fall out.
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The bulb and stem provide the tulip with nutrients
The tulip blossom sits on a long and slender stem that is connected to the characteristic bulb.
- The bulb of the tulip is one of the most important organs of any tulip plant. Its structure resembles tree buds and consists of nested leaf shells that take on a storage function.
- The onion is also used for reproduction. The daughter onions develop in it next to the shoot. Usually each tulip bulb has only one daughter bulb per period. Once it has reached a certain size, it detaches sideways from the mother plant.
- The bulb base of all tulips is blunt. The roots of the plant break out of it. They fix the flower in the ground and pump nutrients and water into it. The tulip bulb then stores these nutrients and liquids in its thick-fleshed box system.
- The stem distributes nutrients and fluids. It is between ten and seventy centimeters long and made up of several layers of tissue. One of these layers of tissue is the conductive tissue, which is used to transport the absorbed substances. The stem of a plant always takes on a stabilizing function and moves, for example, favorably with environmental influences.
- There are two to six oval and elongated leaves on the tulip stem. Much of the photosynthesis that a tulip carries out for growth purposes takes place in these leaves. Like any other plant, the chloroplasts of the tulip convert CO2 and water to oxygen and glucose.
If you have the Tulips See yellow, red, blue or purple in bloom next spring, you may experience this bloom through different eyes. Like all other plants and living things, tulips are a highly complex system, the individual components of which are precisely matched to one another. Every part of the tulip is relevant to its survival. The onion and stem are the supply organs. Veins even run through the stem, as in the human body. The onion, on the other hand, takes on additional reproductive functions that are similar to those of the human uterus. While the petals are used for insemination, the leaves with their photosynthetic function are more responsible for food production. The tulip as an organism can only survive through the exact coordination of these individual functions. It's just as fascinating as the stunning colors of its flower, isn't it?