The Netherlands is known for its beautiful and colorful tulips. Though most tulips originate from the Ottoman empire, Tulipa sylvestris, the wild tulip, followed a different path. Anastasia Stefanaki and Tinde van Andel, both botanists at Wageningen University and Naturalis Biodiversity Center, and Tilmann Walter, historian at University of Würzburg, tried to trace back the exact path of this special tulip.