Madrid - The tulip entered Europe through Moorish Spain five centuries earlier than previously thought, according to a Spanish study made public on Thursday.

The study by the University of Cordoba and the School of Arab Studies contradicts the generally accepted version that the flower, which is now a symbol of the Netherlands, arrived there from the Ottoman Empire, passing through Central Europe.

A reference to the ornamental use of tulips has been found in a botanical work written between the 11th and 12th centuries in Spain, parts of which were under Muslim rule until the late 15th century.

The new theory places the ornamental origin of the flower in Byzanthium, from where it would have been brought to Europe through what is now the southern Spanish region of Andalusia in the 11th century, five centuries earlier than had been thought.

The study was published by the US magazine Economic Botany.