Tulip

Tulips are erect flowers with long, broad, parallel-veined leaves and a cup-shaped, single or double flower at the tip of the stem. Colors of the flowers can range anywhere from red to yellow to white. Some tulips are varicolored as a result of a viral disease carried and transferred to the plants by aphids. The tulip is a member of the lily family which flowers in the spring and is a bulbous herb. About eighty species of tulips exist. The tulip gained popularity quickly after it was introduced in western Europe in the Sixteenth century. Tulip bulbs are still a major export of the Netherlands.