A tulip has been named after Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890), more than 120 years after the artist’s death.

The ‘Vincent van Gogh tulip’ was officially named by the director of the Van Gogh Museum, Axel Rüger, in a ceremony at the museum in Amsterdam.

The newly cultivated tulip was developed in cooperation with the celebrated Keukenhof park in Lisse, southwest of Amsterdam. The tulip is reddish brown, and grows to a height of between 50 and 60 centimetres.

There is no relationship between the tulip’s colour and the works of Van Gogh, said a museum spokesperson. “He never painted a single tulip,” she said, “but he did really like flowers.”

The museum is currently showing an exhibition entitled Blossom, featuring a selection of Van Gogh’s blossom paintings.

For those wishing to pronounce the name of the new tulip and the post-impressionist painter correctly, Gogh both begins and ends with a guttural ch, as in loch.

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