Chekhov would have been familiar with the meadows of Tulipa sylvestris or woodland tulip growing in southern Russian and Crimea. This species of wild tulip is native to the Mediterranean and Black Sea basins, and Central Asia. It is a bulb-forming perennial, usually with yellow flowers, sometimes tinged red on the outside.
Chekhov grew tulips in his flower gardens at Melikhovo. Were these exquisite blooms a living reminder of his childhood in the city of Taganrog in Rostov Oblast in southern Russia and his travels as an adult to Crimea and the Ukrainian and Russian steppe?
Photograph: Tulipa sylvestris or woodland tulip, 1885 illustration, Wikipedia.
Cover Photograph: A meadow of yellow Tulipa sylvestris accompanied by Tulipa schrenkii, Rostov Oblast in southern Russia, Wikipedia.
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