Sajad Alipour (Iran)

Hidden gems of the Iranian highlands: beauty, resilience, and horticultural promise

Sajad Alipour, Ph.D. in Ornamental Plants and Landscape from Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Iran, is a distinguished botanist, ecologist, and horticulturist renowned for his extensive research on Iranian native plants. With over a decade of fieldwork, he specializes in the ecology, propagation, and commercialization of Iranian alpine and bulbous plants, focusing on climate change, seed biology, phenological stages, adaptation, and dormancy. As one of Iran’s foremost experts in Dionysia and bulbous plants, Sajad has discovered or introduced nine new plant species since 2021, including Dionysia splendens (2021), Dionysia persica (2025), Dionysia alipourii (named in his honor), Tulipa sarvestanica, and Muscari zagricum, among others. He serves as Associate Editor of the European Journal of Horticultural Science and Iran’s Representative in the IUCN SSC Wild Tulip Specialist Group, leading conservation efforts. Conducting over 100 days and 40,000 km of fieldwork annually, Sajad manages Iran’s largest collection of endangered native plants. At the 5th Czech International Rock Garden Conference, Sajad will showcase a stunning array of Iranian native plants for rock gardens, illustrated with his own photographs, highlighting their beauty, resilience, and horticultural potential.