Bulb ovoid, 1--2 cm in diam.; tunic blackish brown, thinly leathery, appressed hairy inside basally and distally. Stem 10--20(--30) cm, densely or sparsely pubescent distally, very rarely glabrous. Leaves 3 or 4, spaced or ± crowded, linear or linear-lanceolate, usually not overtopping flower, 0.5--1.5 cm wide. Bracts absent. Flower solitary. Tepals yellow, sometimes turning dark red or pale red when dry, oblong to elliptic-rhomboidal, 2.5--3.5 × 0.4--2 cm; outer ones abaxially tinged with greenish red to greenish purple. Stamens equal; filaments slightly dilated at middle and gradually narrowed at both ends, glabrous. Style very short. Capsule ellipsoid, 1.8--2.2 × 1.2--1.5 cm. Fl. and fr. Mar--May. 2 n = 24.

Reports of Tulipa gesneriana Linnaeus and T. schrenkii Regel from China (e.g., in FRPS) are based on misidentified plants of T. iliensis.

Grassy or gravelly slopes, semideserts; 400--1400 m. Xinjiang [Kazakhstan].