Tulipa fosteriana

The habitat of this species is often used for livestock grazing leading to trampling and grazing damage occurring broadly across the range of this species leading to widespread declining habitat quality  (Davletkeldiev 2006, Tojibaev and Beshko 2015, Nowak et al. 2020). Growing populations of livestock and reduced pasture rotation is leading to increased degradation of large areas of land including the habitat of this species.

In Uzbekistan this species is losing habitat due to mining of gold, marble, limestone etc especially in the Nuratau mountains and Kyzyl-Kum area with subpopulations expected to disappear near the Aydar Lake in the next few generations. In Kyrgyzstan coal mining in the Suluktu area is leading to population declines. Infrastructure projects area also likely to lead to habitat losses in the future with wind turbines planning to be installed in the Jizzakh region of Uzbekistan in tulip habitat areas.

Opportunistic collection of this plant does occur but is on a small scale and generally only happens near settlements where subpopulations are already small. This species will also likely be threatened by climate change, which is predicted to cause patterns of rainfall and temperature to change across the region  (Wilson et al. 2021). This has been predicted to cause suitable habitat areas of tulips to likely shrink and move to higher altitudes, yet the exact impact on this species is unknown.

This species is recognised as Vulnerable on the National Red Lists of Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan where most of the species range occurs (Davletkeldiev 2006, Tojibaev and Beshko 2015), whilst it is recognised as Endangered in Tajikistan where it has limited range (Nowak et al. 2020). It is known from the Zaamin National Park and Naratau Nature Reserve in Uzbekistan. It is known from two ex situ collections on BGCI's Plant Search, whilst it is now being grown by the National Academy of Sciences of the Kyrgyz Republic in Bishkek as well as the Tashkent Botanical Garden (Pechenitsyn et al. 2020). This species is actively managed in Kyrgyzstan through a fencing project in the Batken region managed by the local NGO Bioresurs, which protected around three hectares of this species' habitat across two subpopulations.