Spring-blooming flowers with distinctive cup-shaped blooms and pointed petals, native to Central Asia but widely cultivated. Known for their vibrant colors and association with the Netherlands.
From Turkish 'tulbent' meaning 'turban', referring to the flower's shape resembling a turban. The word entered European languages through trade routes, reaching English via French in the 16th century.
Tulips caused history's first recorded economic bubble in 17th-century Holland, where a single bulb could cost more than a house. 'Tulip mania' became so extreme that people mortgaged their homes to buy bulbs, creating a speculative frenzy that ended in economic collapse and gave us one of the earliest examples of market psychology run amok.
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