Based in Brazil, Fernanda Ferreira is a science writer who covers a range of STEM (and occasionally non-STEM) topics, from textile conservation to vaccine stockpiles.
Semper augustus was once the most coveted flower in Holland. The Dutch were used to single-hued tulips, collectively called Couleren, but Semper augustus was something else. With its splashes of red on white, this bi-colored or variegated tulip became the symbol of tulipomania, a brief period during the Dutch Golden Age when a single tulip bulb could demand a buying price of thousands of guilders. But Semper augustus and its variegated tulip brethren had a problem: there was no guarantee that when one of its bulbs was planted, an equally beautiful tulip with flame-like streaks of color, would pop out of the ground. You might get a Semper augustus or you might end up with a single-hued Couleren tulip.
