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PlantAsia

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  Hear from the Curator

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Hear from the Curator

Hear Mike Bone, Curator of Steppe Collections, describe the rugged, wild landscape of the Central Asian steppe regions of Kazakhstan and Mongolia.






Explore plants from this region at the west end of June's PlantAsia. This section of the garden features plants from the Central Asian steppe, including tulips, foxtail lilies, and species collected from the wild.



A grassland landscape of Kazakhstan.

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  Foxtail lily (Eremurus spp. and cvs.)

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Foxtail lily (Eremurus spp. and cvs.)



Native to: Central Asia
Bloom time: May

Found in the arid mountains of Central Asia, some foxtail lilies can grow to over five feet tall. Their slender, tapered shape and the glowing color of their flowers have also earned them the name "desert candle."

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  Tulip (Tulipa spp.)

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Tulip (Tulipa spp.)



Native to: Central Asia
Bloom time: April through May

Tulips may make you think of Holland, which is where most garden varieties are bred and cultivated, but the plant is actually native to southern Europe and central Asia. This includes Kazakhstan, a rugged, sparsely-populated country with a landscape much like Colorado's that boasts thirty-seven species of wild tulips.

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  Zalil (Delphinium semibarbatum)

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Zalil (Delphinium semibarbatum)



Native to: Central Asia
Bloom time: June

There are at least 300 species of delphinium in the northern hemisphere, but this one (also known as yellow larkspur) is the only one with yellow flowers, also known as yellow larkspur. Native to central Asia, Afghanistan, Iran and parts of India, zalil plants bloom for a long time and then go dormant in summer heat, storing energy in fleshy underground stems called tubers.