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No flower says “spring” quite like a tulip, so to celebrate the emergence of these happy, little flowers, Care2’s Cherise Udell dug up twelve pieces of tulip trivia for your pleasure.

1. Tulips are native to Central Asia. Although they are the quintessential Dutch flower, they actually originated in Central Asia, including Turkey, where the tulip is the national flower.

2. The English word tulip is derived from a Persian word, delband, which means turban. The flower was seen as turban-shaped, hence the name.

3. Tulips have been cultivated for over 500 years, starting at the point of origin, as noted above.

4. The tulip was likely introduced to Europeans in 1554 via a gift from the Ottoman Empire. A European Ambassador was gifted seeds and bulbs, which he then passed to Roman Emperor Ferdinand I and his royal botanist, Carolus Clusius.

Full story at Care2.

A bouquet of trivia.

Photo credit: Fotolia