Tulipa kaufmanniana

Iris kaufmanniana, the Waterlily Tulip, is endemic to the mountain ranges and forest steppes of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. The tulip meadows of the Tien Shan Mountains, east of Tashkent, are particularly famous and enormous drifts of Tulipa kaufmanniana can be found there. It has a low profile and deeply-keeled glaucous leaves that are relatively broad with short-stemmed flowers that are a bright primrose yellow with the outer petals having a large central band of carmine. The flowers open very wide and flat, giving rise to their common name. The anthers characteristically twist from the top downwards as they dehisce. It is one of the earliest flowering of the species Tulips.