There was a time (and a place) when it was very wise to tiptoe through the tulips.

It was in Holland during the 1630s, when tulips were all the rage, a time when the mere possession of this bodacious bulb could put your life in danger and thieving of them from the garden was rampant. In fact, the tulip craze, called tulipmania, was not only dangerous to your person but also a threat to your fortune and future.

Tulipmania was the first speculative frenzy or economic bubble, which as always, eventually crashed. The flower-induced madness seized the Dutch, causing mayhem as no other flower ever has. Even the French got into the act, when, during the reign of Louis XIV, women tucked tulips into their underwear as a sign of wealth and desirability.

Everyone wanted this flower, and no price was too high. A bulb of one tulip variety (Semper Augustus) was traded for 12 acres of land. In another transaction, a 17th century bill of sale noted the following items were sold for a single tulip bulb: two loads of wheat, four loads of rye, four fat oxen, eight fat swine, twelve fat sheep, two hogsheads of wine, four barrels of beer, two barrels of butter, a marriage bed with linens, and of course, a sizeable wagon to haul it all away!

Perhaps the greatest price ever paid for a tulip, though, was a life. It was Sultan Ahmed III who paid so dearly for the tulips he had imported from Holland to Turkey. His official crime was “having spent too much money on the traditional annual tulip festival,” and his punishment was beheading.

It was ironic that the sultan was importing tulip bulbs from Holland to Turkey, considering that it was in Turkey — or, more accurately, the Ottoman Empire — where commercial cultivation of tulips began. Tulips are native to that region and also originally hailed from Asia, Northern Africa and Europe. The word tulip comes from the corruption of a Turkish word, tulbend, meaning turban or muslin, and tulips remain the national flower of Turkey.

Tulips possess a simple beauty (even a kid can draw a good picture of them). They are basic — one single flower on one stem with few simple leaves. Tints include red, yellow, orange, purple, pink, green, and bi (or mixed) colored flowers. They are the world’s third most popular blossom, after only roses and chrysanthemums. Tulips are believed to be the token of the perfect lover, a symbol of passion and love, and a declaration of romance; they are associated with fame, charity and dreaminess.

As if just possessing these flowers were not enough, additional benefits have been found through eating them, too. Ancient Turks brewed a love potion from the leaves. Flower petals could be used in salads and for making wine, and the bulbs make an excellent substitute for onions. Slice them up or fry them as tulip “onion” rings. Somehow the Japanese even figured out a way to make flour from this flower.

A flower that is so versatile, yet so elusive. If you do not have them in your yard, you must wait till next spring to see tulip blooms, as these perennials are planted as bulbs in the fall and early winter. But you still can get them as cut flowers, which, strangely enough, continue to grow after they are severed from the mother plant. Any imported tulips you buy will still most likely come from Holland, which continues to lead the way in production, growing over three billion annually.

Just be sure not to pay too high a price for them, lest you suffer the same fate as the sultan.

Suzan Bellincampi is director of the Felix Neck Wildlife Sanctuary in Edgartown.