It is found on the rocky mountainsides of Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Slovenia, especially along the gorges of the river Danube.

[4][6][8] It has 3 inner and 3 outer flower petals, which slightly overlap,[6] they are between 5–10 cm (2.0 in – 3.9 in) long,[7] and 22–35 mm (0.87 in – 1.38 in) wide.

[4] After the tulip has flowered it produces a seed capsule or fruit, which is elongated or elliptical and 70 mm long, and is inclined on both endpoints.

[19] Tulipa hungarica was originally described and published by Vincze von Borbás (1844 – 1905) a Hungarian botanist,[10] in Foldmuv.

[2][20] Tulipa hungarica is found in part of the Balkans region,[27][28] within Bulgaria,[28][19] Romania,[20][4][5] (including in the Western Romanian Carpathians[29]) Montenegro,[4] Hungary,[12][11] and Slovenia.

[1][28] Tulipa hungarica grows on limestone soils,[4][7][16] in open mixed deciduous forests and below shrubs.

[19] Tulipa hungarica is classed as 'Near Threatened' approaching Criterion D1 as there are estimated (in 2021) to be slightly more than 1,000 mature individuals in a small range.

It is listed as 'high priority' with other plants such as Centaurea jankae, Potentilla emilii-popii, Centaurea pontica, Dracocephalum austriacum, Ferula sadleriana, Gladiolus palustris, Stipa danubialis, Thlaspi jankae, Paeonia officinalis subsp.

[34] Part of the tulip's habitat is in the protected The Iron Gates Natural Park territory (on the SW Romania and Slovenia border,[5]),[9][10] which is about 270 km away from the town of Timișoara.

[1] As the insolation and exposure of the slopes in the park, make the climate pleasant and the soils are favourable for this plant.

[10] It was found that in recent years, it has expanded its area, the number of wild tulips have exceeding 8,000 specimens.

[10] As the biologists from the Iron Gates nature reserve are closely monitoring it,[10] which is done from the Serbian shore, so that they can use specialised equipment on boats to watch the population, to identify any threats or pressure on this species.

[16] Amalia Dumbravă, a biologist from the Iron Gates Natural Park was noted in 2021, "we have identified an approximate number of 8-9,000 plants".

[1] Also, every spring there are hundreds of tourists to the park eager to admire its beauty in the rocky wilderness.

[16] It has been determined that this species of tulip has become extinct across large areas of its natural range on the Balkan peninsula.

[19] Such as in Serbia, T. hungarica was rare on the north face side of the Iron Gate gorge but it has not been recorded in last ten years.

[1] Of the 15 plant species that were recorded which are part of the "Red Book of Flora of Serbia 1", three taxa have disappeared from the area of Đerdap national park (the other side of the Iron Gates gorge), (Veronica bachofenii, Crocus banaticus and Tulipa hungarica).

These 3 species have been lost, due to the flooding of their habitats in the process of building a hydroelectric power station (the Iron Gate I Hydroelectric Power Station in 1972, unfortunately before the plant protection schemes started) which formed a water reservoir.

[36] It is a rare plant in European gardens, but can grow in full sun in fertile soil with good drainage.

[12] A painting by Zoltan Molnar called 'Meadow Flowers Indigenous to Hungary' features 'Tulipa hungarica' as well as others including Syringa josikaea and Verbascum thapsiforme.

[39] According to an old tale; about a local Romanian girl who fell in love with a shepherd who was grazing his sheep up on the Ciucarul Mare plateau in the Banat Mountains.

So she had to secretly agree to meet him on the plateau, but she inadvertently slipped and fell into the Danube river.