In Bishkek, in May 2022, the issue of including certain types of tulips growing in Central Asia in the red list of the International Union for Conservation of Nature will be discussed. A meeting on this topic will be held with the participation of regional and international experts. This event is supported by the Darwin Initiative and the Amsterdam Tulip Museum.
Now throughout the capital you can see hundreds of colorful tulips. All these are imported ornamental varieties. Few people know that about one third of all wild tulip species, which laid the foundation for modern varieties, grows on the territory of Kyrgyzstan.
Of these, 7 species are endemic plant species, which are often listed in the Red Books as rare or endangered species. Note that endemics are plant species that are found in a limited area.
Three years ago, work on local tulips was launched as part of a project for the effective management of pasture resources in partnership with the organizations “Bioresurs” and the Association of Forest and Land Users of Kyrgyzstan, as well as the Botanical Garden of the University of Cambridge, with the support of the Darwin Initiative of the UK Government.
According to Zharkyn Samanchina, director of the branch in the Kyrgyz Republic of the British environmental organization Fauna and Flora International, the main achievement of the tulip component was that we now have an updated and, one might say, quite complete picture of the species diversity and distribution of tulips in the republic.
“It was previously thought that 27 species grow in our country, but this figure will soon change, because thanks to joint expeditions with specialists from the National Academy of Sciences of the Kyrgyz Republic with the participation of the chief scientist botanist Georgy Anatolyevich Lazkov, previously undescribed species were found, and thanks to the genetic research of a doctoral student from Cambridge Bret Wilson we also know that some tulips, previously considered separate species, are in fact one species,” said Zharkyn Samanchina.
During field research, a collection of 22 wild species of tulips was collected and planted in the nursery of the Botanical Garden. E. Z. Gareeva. It should be noted that expeditions of such a scale and the creation of an ex-situ collection are implemented in Kyrgyzstan for the first time.
