The national flower of Hungary is the tulip. The tulip has been Hungary’s national flower for centuries and holds great significance in a number of different ways to the people of the nation. It is of great symbolic importance but also is highly revered for its remarkable beauty.
The tulip is one of the world’s most popular garden flowers, so it should come as no surprise that it should be the choice of national flower in Hungary.
It is important in both a literal, and physical sense and in a variety of metaphorical and symbolic ways.
Let’s find out more.
What is the national flower of Hungary?
The national flower of Hungary is the tulip.
This, rather than being a single species of flowering plant, is in fact a broad genus containing many species but which most people typically think of as a single flower with cultivars and variants.
They are perennial herbaceous bulbiferous geophytes, which means they have bulbs as storage organs.
They have large, showy flowers that come in a great many different colors, like red, pink, orange, yellow, and white.
There is a considerable degree of internal variability within different populations of the flower and thus taxonomy and classification have been difficult and controversial.
They are, though, members of the lily family.
There are around 75 species.
The name “tulip” is, it is thought, derived from a Persian word meaning “turban”.
The flower does somewhat resemble a turban and so it’s thought this connection was made by those who discovered the flower.
They have become widely naturalized all over the world though in their natural range they do best in steppes and mountain slopes, broadly areas with temperate climates.
They flower in the spring and become dormant again in the summer as their leaves die back.
Tulip plants can be anywhere from 4 to 28 inches in height, and the flowers are large and radially symmetric.
They are generally erect but sometimes pendulous, and typically arranged as a single flower.
Their stems do not have many leaves, though larger species are more likely to have more leaves.
There are usually around two to six leaves.
They have a globose or ellipsoid capsule fruit with a leathery covering.
These contain a number of flat, disc-shaped seeds in two rows in each chamber.
They have very thin coats and generally don’t fill the entire chamber.
Why are they Hungary’s national flower, then?
Why is the tulip the national flower of Hungary?
The tulip is the national flower of Hungary for a few different reasons.
They have been considered the national flower in some sense since at least the 15th Century, so it’s plain to see how far back in time this tradition goes–though of course our modern idea of a “national flower” is a far more recent invention.
Nonetheless, the flower has been an important part of the physical Hungarian landscape since at least this time.
They are seen to embody Hungarian beauty in their own way and this, on a more physical level, is one of the reasons they are and have been considered the country’s national flower.
On the other hand, they are seen as important national symbols in a few different ways in Hungary.
The color of the tulip can signify different things in the Hungarian tradition:
- White tulips have traditionally been seen as an important symbol of peace.
- Yellow tulips are said to be a symbol of friendship.
- Red tulips, somewhat unsurprisingly, are symbols of love.
All of these things are important to Hungarians on both the personal level and the broader level of national pride.
Where do tulips come from?
Tulips originated in Central Asia, though they were first properly cultivated in Iran, as far as we can tell.
This was as early as the 10th Century when even this far back they were prized for their beauty.
They traveled to Europe quickly and were being cultivated widely only a century or so later, and so by the 15th Century they had come to be so important in Hungary that they were widely considered the most important flower symbolically.
They were also, importantly, highly prized by the Ottoman Empire by the 15th Century, which is in part how they came to be so prized elsewhere.
Are tulips edible?
Tulips are indeed edible and will not do you any harm if eaten–the flowers, that is.
Sometimes in times of famine, people have eaten the bulbs of the tulip plant, but these must be carefully prepared in order to be edible.
As the “famine food” title suggests, though, they are not especially nutritious or tasty.
Tulips may be edible, but this does not necessarily mean they should be eaten.
They are not especially good for you nor will they taste nice, and indeed in most cases, edible flowers are really meant as an adornment rather than a way to enhance flavor or nutrition.
Tulips might not quite have the profile of the rose, but they are nonetheless among the world’s most popular garden and ornamental flowers.
They hold this significance and more in Hungary where they have been chosen as the national flower for a variety of different reasons.
Tulips embody a number of important things that are at the center of Hungarian life and the decision to call them the national flower is, as we’ve seen, not a recent one–tulips have been important here for many centuries.