A tulip is a bulbous plant in the genus Tulipa, contains 109 species with showy flowers, in the family Liliaceae. The species native array includes southern Europe, North Africa, and Asia from Anatolia and Iran in the west to northeast of China. The centre of diversity of the genus is in the Pamir and Hindu Kush mountains and the steppes of Kazakhstan. A amount of species and many hybrid cultivars are grown in gardens, used as pot plants or as fresh cut flowers. Most cultivars of tulip are derived from Tulipa gesneriana.

The species are perennials from bulbs, the tunicate bulbs often fashioned on the ends of stolons and covered with hairless to variously hairy papery coverings. The species take in short low-growing plants to tall upright plants, growing from 10 to 70 centimeters (4 to 27 in) tall. They also grow in the cold and snowy winter. Plants typically have 2 to 6 leaves, with few species having up to 12 leaves. The foliage attached to the stem is strap-shaped, waxy-coated, usually in light to medium green and alternately arranged.