Tulip

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Mat Yudov: Tulips are one of the indisputable signs and symbols of the upcoming Spring. From the botanical point of view, tulips (lat. Tulipa) are perennial bulbous plants and belong to the lily family (lat. Liliaceae), which includes about 80 species.

The tulip originates from the mountains of Northern Iran, a former bank of the Tethys Ocean in the middle of modern Eurasia.

Wild tulips have gradually settled everywhere, from Spain and Morocco to Eastern Russia. People started their cultivation as ornamental plants in the Middle East approximately a thousand years ago.

Tulips were brought to Europe in the beginning of the 16th century: first they took root in Portugal, and later spread to other countries all the way to Scandinavia. In the 18th century, tulip cultivation became a fashionable exercise of wealthy people in Europe, and Holland won the competition, becoming a recognized center of flower cultivation and trade.

Wild tulip (Tulipa sylvestris), photo by Marina Serova

In the 17th century, some very remarkable events happened regarding the tulip, the so called tulipomania, when the demand for tulip bulbs became so high, especially tulips of a certain variegated kind, that it caused the first stock market bubble.

Now we know that the motley petal appearance was caused by a virus infection. With time, motley tulips went out of fashion, many of them perished from the virus, and the rest was destroyed in the second half of the 20st century to stop the infection. All modern variegated tulip species are not victims of any disease, their color has been caused by mutations.

Modern cultivated tulips are usually divided into fifteen classes: ten of them are species of Tulipa gesneriana or Tulipa schrenkii, then goes Tulipa fosteriana (11), Tulipa kaufmanniana (12), Tulipa greigii (13), Darvin hybrids of mentioned Tulipa gesneriana and Tulipa fosteriana (14), and other species and hybrids form the last, 15th class.

Tulip is not the most common flower in perfumery. In the book Perfumery by Rudolf Friedman, tulips are literally given only one page, where the author describes their scent as a saffron over a lily background with a hint of honey and tobacco, and complains that the flower had been undeservedly neglected by perfumers. On the other hand, substances which form a tulip scent have been studied in great detail.

A key role in the tulip smell belongs to monoterpenes (eucalyptol, linalool, d-limonene, trans-β-ocimene and α-pinene):

4 sesquiterpenoids (caryophyllene, α-farnesene, geranylacetone and β-ionone):

6 aromatic compounds (from the chemical point of view, in this case benzole derivatives: acetophenone, benzaldehyde, benzyl alcohol, 3,5-dimethoxytoluene, methyl salicylate and phenethyl alcohol):

and 5 fatty acids derivatives (aldehyde C-8 octanal, aldehyde C-10 decanal, 2-hexenal, "leaf alcohol" cis-3-hexenol and cis-3-hexenyl acetate).

The percentage of their amounts might vary significantly from one tulip species to another, therefore depending on their odor profiles all tulips can be divided into 9 big groups.

The Anisic group includes flowers with an aromatic, spicy sweet smell, reminiscent of anis and star anis (Illicium). This kind of smell often depends on a high content of methyl salicylate (the main ingredient of a wintergreen or Pyrola essential oil). Some species from this olfactory group also contain acetophenone and benzyl alcohol in a big concentration, which give them sweetness.

The Citrus group consists of tulips with a fresh sweet smell, somewhat similar to orange fruit. It is determined by aldehydes, linalool and a relatively high content of eucalyptol and ocimene.

The Fruity group is formed of flowers with a smell similar to apples or berries. It is a fairly big group, so it has been additionally divided into 4 types: species with a fresh and juicy smell with a high amount of farnesene and geranylacetone; sweet fruity species with a lot of ionone and decanal; linalool species and almond-scented flowers, due to a big content of benzaldehyde.

Many tulips smell grassy green. Cis-3-hexenol and cis-3-hexenyl acetate are responsible for this particular green and rather apple-like aroma.

A considerable part of tulip flowers has a spicy aromatic smell, produced by a ocimene, eucalyptol, pinene and limonene dominance.

A specific honey-like aroma of some kind is formed by a significant amount of phenethyl alcohol and phenylacetaldehyde. They also often contain a noticeable percentage of eucalyptol.

Some tulips smell delicately of rose, due to phenethyl alcohol, one of the key rose ingredients.

The Spicy group consists of flowers with an ample measure of 3,5-dimethoxytoluene, smelling wet, spicy and slightly medicinal. Ocimene and methyl salicylate often participate in this sweetish medicinal bouquet.

The last group is Woody, assembled of rare species with a faint woody smell due to caryophyllene.

When we say tulip, we often think of Holland; its flower parades and the royal park Keukenhof which opens at the end of March. A traditional tulip fair is held in Keukenhof in the middle of October. The international tulip day is celebrated on the 16th of January when the central square in Amsterdam is covered with tulips.

Tulips are adored not only in Holland, though; many tulip breeders live in Japan. The city of Tonami has made tulip its symbol. Here, a big local tulip fair is annually held with 600 different tulip sorts and over 2,5 million flowers presented.

Istanbul, Brussels, Beijing, Ottawa, Kansas City, Shanghai, Canberra, the Italian park of Sigurta and the German castle Ippenburg have their own regular tulip festivals.

Ziryab is remarkable by its structure. The main tulip motif is woven into a mineral woody background, so the perfume can be attributed to three olfactory families at once: oriental due to its hot and spicy enviroment, woody thanks to cedar and oud which emphasize the freshness and fragility of the red flower, and, actually, floral which is an important and also very beautiful part of Ziryab. The contrast between the past and the present, hot and cold, living and non-living, makes this fragrance so unusual and memorable, just like many of Majda Bekkali's other creations.

Julietta Ptoyan: I presume that it is really difficult to recreate the illusive mercurial scent of tulip in a perfume. Green tulips smell different from their woody or rose companions, as Mat pointed out above, but I dare say they all still have something in common; a sappy nuance and the fresh green vivacity of newly mown grass.

I smell this characteristic tulip scent in Mela e Tulipani by Derbe, there is a lot of greenness, transparent dewiness and a spicy mist of yellow tulip pollen. Incanto I Profumi di Firenze represents the neat petals of the sunset colors and the wet crunchy leaves wrapped in glossy cellophane.

By Julietta Ptoyan, Matvey Yudov, Valery Mikhalitsyn