Tulipa Cypria

Grown on the pastures around the Tepebaşı and Avtepe villages, the deep red flower blossoms can be seen in March and April.

Tulipa cypria, the Cyprus tulip, is a tulip, an erect perennial bulbous herb, 15–40 cm high (in blossom), with glabrous, glaucous leaves. The four leaves are alternate, simple, entire, and fleshy, the two lower ones are larger, lanceolate, 10-20 x 2–6 cm, with conspicuously undulate margins, and the two higher much smaller, nearly linear. One terminal showy flower, perianth cup-shaped, of six free, petaloid segments, 2.5-9 x 1-3.5 cm, with dark blood-red color, internally with a black blotch bordered by a yellow zone. It flowers March–April. The fruit is a capsule.
Under the protection and picking are forbidden, the absence of references to this endemic tulip species in ancient literature suggests that the Cyprus Tulip may be a recent mutant of a species which have arrived at the island within the last 300 – 400 years.