Native species of the genus Tulipa and tulip breeding in China

There are 13 recognized species of the genus Tulipa native to China, accounting for 10% of the genus in the world. The 13 species are Tulipa edulis, T. erythronioides, T. schrenkii, T. kolpakowskiana, T. iliensis, T. thianschanica, T. altaica, T. sinkiangensis, T. heteropetala, T. heterophylla, T. patens, T. buhseana and T. dasystemon, in four sections of the genus: Tulipa sect. Amana, sect. Leiostemones, sect. Eriostemones and sect. Orithia. Among them, 11 species are distributed in Xinjiang and the other two are distributed in northeast China and regions near the Yangtze River. Recently, four novel species, Tulipa tarbagataica, T. kuocangshanica, T. anhuiensis and T. wanzhensis, were reported from China. The morphological characters and distribution of the 17 species are described in this report. Tulip breeding work started only recently in China and few cultivars have been released to date. The status and strategy of tulip breeding in China are introduced in this paper.