The Tulip Origin: Wild Tulips in Kyrgyzstan

Did you know there are places where tulips grow in the wild? I have photographed tulips in my homeland the Netherlands for more than 10 years and recently started to photograph them in different countries around the world. But these are all cultivated tulips created in the last thousand years by people. Tulips actually have many wild ancestors. In fact, tulips have grown in the wild for over 20 million years. The world was a very different place back then and so it is difficult to know the exact place of origin of this plant, but today many countries claim to be the home of wild tulips and evidence suggest Central Asia is the most likely region. One thing is for sure: there is an enormous diversity of tulips growing in the spectacular Tien Shan mountain range.

People that know me know that I have a special connection with Kyrgyzstan. My wife is from this beautiful country and I have photographed many spectacular areas over a period of many years. And then there’s my ‘passion’ for flowers and tulips that I keep pursuing every spring. This year, I am bringing these 2 passions together: photographing wild tulips in Kyrgyzstan. Kyrgyzstan boasts around 25 recognised species of tulips and has a large number of endemic tulips. This country has seven species found nowhere else in the world!

Research

This all started with my contact with the World Tulip Society about 2 years ago, in particular with Ibo Gulsen, who shares a similar passion for tulips as me. He was working on the project ‘Tulips around the World’ and asked me to do the photography. An ongoing project of many years and countries. One important part is the origin of the tulip that I described above. As we knew tulips grew in Kyrgyzstan and I already had a lot of experience going there, I decided to go there in search of these wildflowers.

I began with some research. Actually, there is not so much you can find about wild tulips in Kyrgyzstan. There are a handful of articles and blogs online, but they are not that specific. Wild tulips are also often protected, so it’s no wonder people are being a bit secretive about where they are. My research quickly led me to an article by Dr. Brett Wilson who is the co-chair of the IUCN SSC Wild Tulip Specialist Group , a group that researches and conserves wild tulip species. He has been doing this for many years already and is an expert on the wild tulips of Kyrgyzstan. I contacted him, told him my own passion and goal, and we set up an online meeting. And to my surprise and luck, they were actually organising an expedition this year, funded by ARTE, who were making a documentary on the project. The team was kind enough to let me join their mission, and fast forward to April 2025, we were on the road hunting for wild tulips. 

The Team: 

Dr. Brett Wilson (Plant Conservationist, Wild Tulip Expert, UK)

Ormon Sultangaziev (Plant Conservationist, Wild Tulip Expert, KG)

Dr. Maarten Christenhusz (Biologist, Natural Historian, NL)

Dr. Aibek Dolotbakov (Plant Conservationist, Wild Tulip Expert, KG)

Akylai Kabaeva (Conservationist, KG)

Ruslan (Protected Area Government Representative, KG)

Thierry Ragobert (Film Director ARTE)

Guillaume Bression (Director of photography ARTE)

Martin Ragobert (Assistent camera ARTE)

Albert Dros (me)(Landscape Photographer, NL)

For Brett and Ormon, the goal of this trip was to visit many of the places they visited on a similar trip 2019. Many of the landscapes and species face an array of threats including climate change, and as conservationists, they were obviously worried about the survival of tulip species in the wild. Tulips are quite fragile plants when flowering and are very climate dependant, and if the rainfall and temperature patterns change too quickly, they might simply not survive anymore.

For me this expedition was about scouting places for the wild tulips, learning, and potentially getting some good photos. I was tied to the schedule of the team, which meant no sunrises or late nights shooting, which I was completely okay with. We spent about a week driving through different parts of the country on the hunt for many different species of wild tulips. 

Wild Tulips in their Natural Habitat

I had never seen a wild tulip. So, when we drove outside of Bishkek on our first day into the wild landscapes of Kyrgyzstan, I really couldn’t hide my excitement when we saw our first species right next to the road. Brett and Ormon knew exactly where to stop and look, so if I hadn’t travelled with them it would have been difficult for me to find any populations of wild tulips.

Tulipa dasystemon

We went through several passes and suddenly, in a little meadow, that’s where they were. These wild tulips were actually quite small. Much smaller than most cultivated tulips that I am used to. In fact: maybe you wouldn’t immediately think this was a tulip species. But even though small, the flowers were very photogenic, not to mention the spectacular surroundings. I am used to a clean horizon in the Netherlands, sometimes with a windmill or little church. But here in Kyrgyzstan, the backdrops were on another level. Spectacular mountains or forests were surrounding the wild tulips, showing their wild natural habitats‘. For me, it was a dream come true to see tulips growing in the wild in one of my favourite countries and it was a privilege to travel with this group of experts, who could tell me all about the species I was seeing. 

Tulipa dasystemon

This one in particular is called the Tulipa dasystemon and only grows in particular areas of Central Asia. I spent some time capturing this small tulip in this beautiful valley surrounded by snow-covered mountains. 

The team loved this place and we spent 2 afternoons here, so I had plenty of time to photograph these tulips with different lenses and with some beautiful light changes and clouds.

Because these were quite small, I really enjoyed myself with the macro lens to capture them in dreamy settings:

It was interesting to see how the tulips would quickly open during sunny intervals, and close when clouds blocked the sun. I actually liked the shape most when they were in between opening and closing.

We stayed near Toktogul (a small Kyrgyz city) for a while and then moved on to Sary-Chelek Biosphere Reserve. I was already familiar with both places, but had never visited them in early Spring before.

Forests and Lakes 

Sary-Chelek

Sary-Chelek is a Protected Area. The wild tulips in this area are shielded from many threats. There’s a gate to enter, so you can’t always access this place. As you can read in my previous photo stories about Kyrgyzstan, the country has so much variety in terms of landscapes. Every hour or two the landscape can completely change. Kyrgyzstan has many incredible mountains, but also dry areas with canyons, and extremely green areas like Sary-Chelek. It may be one of the greenest places in the country, with lots of forest and beautiful lakes. A perfect place for flowers to grow. The climate in spring is perfect for a specific species of tulip to grow here: the Tulipa anadroma. And the special thing: this is the only place in the world where this particular species grows.

Tulipa Anadroma

And what a tulip this is! This tulip is quite tall, similar to the cultivated tulips I am used to. It also really looks like a tulip. You’ll immediately recognise it as a tulip when you see it. Especially when it’s partly closed. And when it opens during a sunny day, it completely opens it tepals (similar to petals) to soak up all the sunlight. It opens so much that it almost doesn’t look like a tulip anymore. The tulips I know definitely do not open so much, but to see the Tulipa anadroma soaking up the light like this is just absolutely beautiful.

On the first day here I spent time photographing the tulips with a wide angle lens in their natural environment. This consists special techniques which include ‘focus stacking’ where I take multiple shots to get the entire landscape in focus. I love to show the particularly green landscape around the tulips and show you where exactly they grow, and put emphasis on their surroundings. On that day, there was a mixture of clouds and sunlight which had great impact on the shape of the tulips. They very quickly close when the light is gone, and completely open when they receive sunlight. And so I took a mixture of photos in different shapes.      

The next day was extremely sunny, and I took a more creative approach by doing some fisheye perspectives photographing the tulips from underneath, almost glowing from the sun above. I really enjoyed putting myself in weird angles to try and get interesting compositions in the middle of the day.   

All in all it was almost a miracle to see these wild tulips grow in such a beautiful landscape here in Kyrgyzstan, and see them doing so well. Brett and Ormon had seen them growing here over five years ago, and the species seem to be doing very well here. Although the species is not known from outside the protected area where there are considerable threats and so it is actually quite a rare species. At this time, the tulips were flowering only at higher altitudes and not so much anymore in their lower extent. This was because it was a particularly hot spring in Kyrgyzstan in 2025, so the blooming period shifted a bit. But it was very interesting to see that a difference of just 100 meters of altitude could already mean the difference between blooming or finished blooming.

I took some photos in the forest at slightly lower altitudes and had a hard time finding one or 2 tulips that were still in bloom, while a little bit higher up they were blooming in high numbers.  

Remote

Our final destination was the valley of Chatkal, a place I had not visited before. And what a place it was: A valley surrounded by spectacular mountains with incredible snowy mountain passes to get there. The villages did not have running water, which shows you how remote and wild this place is. The team had a goal of video graphing material of the wild horses here, but I decided to do something else. I went on a day trip with some locals hunting for places with wild tulips. In this valley you could normally see lots of them, but because of the very hot spring, most of them were already finished. I went exploring with two local rangers in a little Lada car, checking out several little valleys in the area to find the tulips. We found a few, and I mainly spent time photographing close ups and bees pollinating the red tulips. The tulips here are primarily Tulipa kaufmanniana, that can be found in white, yellow, and red forms with an array of shades of these colours. This tulip only grows in the wild in the Tien Shan mountains.      

Even though the rangers and I did not speak the same language, we got around this by using Google Translate. I had a great day exploring and simply seeing the incredible scenery this valley had to offer. And of course, there were quite a lot of wild tulips. This is a place I will definitely come back to and explore more, but on this trip we simply did not have much time.

Here are some impressions of that day so you can have a feel of the atmosphere:

End

Just seeing the wild tulips grow in the beautiful landscapes of Kyrgyzstan was incredible. Seeing this plant grow in the wild gives a whole new dimension to my tulip portfolio, which was primarily cultivated tulips. It was a privilege to see and photograph them in the wild landscapes of Kyrgyzstan. For me, this is just the start. I’ll continue the project of wild tulips in the upcoming years and can’t wait to see where this takes me.

It was a joy to see that wild tulips were generally doing well in these wild natural places, but the heat this year definitely altered blooming times and it will therefore be interesting to see how the changing climate impacts these flowers in the coming years. I definitely hope we will be able to enjoy wild tulips for many more decades to come.

Special thanks to the whole team for letting me join on this trip. I am looking forward to seeing the finished documentary by ARTE. Special thanks in particular to Ormon and Brett for organising this trip and all the logistics. If you want to know more about wild tulips or for enquiries, please do reach out to the IUCN SSC Wild Tulip Specialist Group at bdw35@cam.ac.uk (Brett) and ormon@list.ru (Ormon) and check out their website : https://tulipconservation.com

This article was published in collaboration with the Wild Tulip Specialist Group.

Thank you for reading!

Albert