The Semper Augustus Tulip
A 17th-century watercolor of the Semper Augustus, the most coveted and expensive tulip variety of the Dutch tulip mania.
At the height of Dutch tulip mania in early 1637, a single bulb of the Semper Augustus reportedly changed hands for a sum that could have bought a fine canal house in Amsterdam. Its prized white petals streaked with flame-red were not a stable variety at all but the result of a mosaic virus spread by aphids, which weakened the bulbs even as it made them more valuable and unpredictable to breed. The speculative bubble in tulip futures collapsed within weeks of its February 1637 peak, wiping out paper fortunes and leaving Semper Augustus as the enduring symbol of one of history's first recorded financial bubbles. Read more in our article on tulip mania in the Dutch Republic.
Public domain — source (Wikimedia Commons). Free to reuse under the stated licence.
