Tulipa bactriana

There is significant habitat degradation occurring across this species’ estimated range due to grazing practices and agricultural practices including expansion of agricultural land. Specifically, this species occurs in areas of shrubland that are heavily grazed by sheep and this is the main threat (de Groot and Tojibaev 2020). Furthermore, these same areas are under pressure from population growth and urbanisation, with some of this tulips' habitat likely to be lost as new solar farms are developed. Climate change will also likely impact this semi-desert dwelling species (Wilson et al. 2021) with increased aridification of its already arid habitat likely and changes to rainfall patterns, which are so important for the flowering of this plant. These impacts are already causing extreme fluctuations of over one order of magnitude in the number of flowering individuals due to annually changing conditions. Given the restricted range of this species it is exceptionally prone to changes in climate and subpopulations may be forced to move to track their climatic niche or require translocation in the future. There is currently no evidence of use and trade of this species or mining occurring in its restricted range.

This species was reported as Data Deficient in the Red Book of Uzbekistan (Tojibaev and Beshko 2015). It is not known to occur in any protected areas or to be present in any ex situ collections. Currently very little is known about the state of subpopulations or the true range of this species. Protection of this species is urgently needed likely in the form of a new protected area.