To TravelGumbo’s surprise, if not to everyone’s, the tulip is not the national flower of the Netherlands; in fact it wasn’t even an eligible candidate as a vote was taken.
The honor went instead to the daisy, a pretty enough flower, but well… not a tulip. The tulip wasn’t eligible because it doesn’t grow wild in the Netherlands. It is, however, the national flower of both Hungary and Turkey, the lands it arrived from in the 16th century.
The vote was organized by a popular radio station that decided the Netherlands should follow the lead of most European countries and pick a national flower. Competitors for the daisy included dandelion, mayflower, cow parsley and fritillary.
Dutch Nature Minister Christianne van der Wal called the electiion “a way of making people more aware of the beautiful wild flowers around us,” and botanical philosopher Norbert Peters told listeners that the daisy was a good choice because “Most people will recognize a daisy. Norbert Peters said. “It would be a shame if you had to explain to people what the national flower looks like.”
