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A new reverse tulip species was identified in Sason, a district of Batman province in southeastern Türkiye, after Dr. Resit Ugran spotted the plant during a nature walk in the rural Yucebag area. Ugran is a faculty member at Batman University's Vocational School of Technical Sciences.
Suspecting the plant could represent an undocumented species, Ugran contacted biologist Veysel Sonay and Associate Professor Mehmet Maruf Balos, a botanist.
The team returned to the site, an area locally known as Hiyan, to collect samples for further study.
Following laboratory analysis and comparison with closely related species, the researchers concluded the plant was a previously unrecorded species.
The findings were published in Phytotaxa, a journal recognized internationally as an authority in botanical taxonomy.
The species was named Fritillaria xiyanensis in Latin, after the Hiyan area where it was found, and given the Turkish name "Sason Lalesi," rendered in English as the "Sason Tulip."
The discovery brings the number of known reverse tulip species in Türkiye to 62, up from 61. Around 175 reverse tulip species have been identified worldwide, Ugran said.
Ugran said he regularly goes on nature walks and photographs plants as a hobby. He said confirming a new species requires comparing its roots, height, flowers and outer and inner leaves with those of closely related species already recorded in the scientific literature.
"We took samples of this plant, carried out measurements and after publishing this in a scientific journal, concluded it was a new species and named it," Ugran said.
He said removing endemic plants, particularly their bulbs, is prohibited, and said he believes the newly identified species should be placed under protection.
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