Brett Wilson, Department of Plant Sciences, University of Cambridge
Event information
Cultivated tulips are a common sight in Spring gardens around the world, but have you ever considered where wild tulips grow?
The wild ancestors of our much-loved horticulture varieties, can mostly be found in the mountains and valleys of Central Asia, a far cry from the Netherlands, where most tulips are grown and bred. At the Botanic Garden, we have a National Tulip Collection where we grow many wild species including plenty of species from Central Asia. Over the last four years, Sam Brockington, CUBG’s Curator and his PhD student, Brett Wilson, have been using this collection combined with fieldwork to understand tulip diversity, with a view to identifying which Central Asian species are most at risk of extinction.
Come and listen to Brett speak about this research, our collaborations, and the adventures that have occurred in our quest to find and protect wild tulips in this remote corner of the world.
