CULTIVAR CLASSIFICATION IN TULIPA L (LILIACEAE)

A total of 43 Tulipa gesneriana (section Tulipa) cultivars, 25 cultiva rs and wild accessions belonging to 11 species of sections Tulipa and Eichleres and three species hybrids were subjected to multivariate ana lysis based on data of 30 morphological characters recorded in two sub sequent years. The main division according to earliness of flowering, which has been in use since Clusius made this division early in the 17 th century, was con firmed by the distribution of the accessions in th e principal component plots. The repeatability of measurements is high for most characters, as is deduced from the Pearson correlation coeff icient per character between years. A cultivar classification system i s proposed with two levels. The acceptance of a two-level cultivar cla ssification is based on the structure of variation encountered and is a continuation of four centuries of tulip cultivar classification. The top level should include three supergroups for Early, Mid-season and Late flowering cultivars. Recommendations are made concerning the rest oration of certain cultivar-groups and the placement of some cultivars . It can be concluded that multivariate methods provide basic insight in the diversity among cultivars. This information can be used as a ba sis for the construction of cultivar classifications.