Lala

Tulips are spring-blooming perennial herbaceous bulbiferous geophytes of the genus Tulipa, in the lily family, Liliaceae. The genus has about 75 species, divided among four subgenera. The flowers are usually large, showy and brightly coloured, generally red, orange, pink, yellow or white. The name tulip is thought to be derived from a Turkish word for turban. Breeding programmes have produced thousands of hybrids and cultivars in addition to the original species.

The tulip's leaf is strap-shaped, with a waxy coating, and the fleshy blades are often bluish-green. The great majority of tulips, both species and cultivars, have no discernible scent, but a few of both are scented to a degree. T. hungarica is described as strongly scented, and the wild tulip, Tulipa sylvestris, bears scented blooms between April and May.

About 130 scent compounds, from terpenoids and benzenoids to fatty acid derivatives, were detected in 51 tulip cultivars with characteristic floral odours. At least 183 scent components have been reported for tulip flowers. The major scent compounds include the monoterpenoids eucalyptol, linalool, d-limonene, trans-β-ocimene and α-pinene, the benzenoids benzyl alcohol and 2-phenylethanol, and the fatty acid derivatives cis-3-hexenol and cis-3-hexenyl acetate.

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