Description
Amongst the neo-tulips, this one stands out for its colouring, rather than the usual red flowers with a black throat star, often found in that group. T. platystigma has open, bowl-shaped flowers in a curious shade of pink-purple. The throat patch consists of dark blue patches, separated only by the thinnest edge of the petals, to focus the six segments nicely.
Inside the flower you can see the greenish-yellow style with a trifid stigma split into three, very broad sulphur-yellow recurving lobes, the width of these giving rise to the species name. Jet-black anthers surround the female parts of the flower.
In the right spot this can clump up nicely. We give it a loam-based compost, in full sun and make sure that the bulbs are fed regularly to keep them up to size. A dryish summer rest is all we give, not a hard bake
Though not truly “wild”, the so-called “neo-Tulips” of France are probably ancient introductions of T. gesneriana dating as much as 500 years and are each distinct from each other and unique.
Described by P.C.Billot in Annotations à la flore de France et d’Allemagne (1855)
