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Crocus (plural: crocus, crocuses) is a genus
Genus

A genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the classification of living and fossil organisms. The taxonomic ranks are domain , kingdom , phylum, class , order , family , genus, and species....
 of perennial
Perennial plant

A perennial plant or perennial is a plant that lives for more than two years. When used by gardeners or horticulturalists, this term applies specifically to perennial herbaceous plants....
 flowering plant
Flowering plant

The flowering plants or angiosperms are the most widespread group of Embryophytes. The flowering plants and the gymnosperms are the only extant groups of Spermatophyte....
s, native to a large area from coastal and subalpine areas of central and southern Europe
Europe

Europe is, conventionally, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural , the Caspian Sea, and by the Caucasus Mountains to the southeast....
 (including the islands of the Aegean
Aegean Sea

The Aegean Sea is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea located between the southern Balkans and Anatolian peninsulas, i.e., between the mainlands of Greece and Turkey respectively....
), North Africa
North Africa

North Africa or Northern Africa is the northernmost region of the African continent, separated by the Sahara from Sub-Saharan Africa.Geopolitically, the United Nations subregion of Northern Africa includes the following seven countries or territories:...
 and the Middle East
Middle East

File:GreaterMiddleEast1.pngThe Middle East is a region that spans southwestern Asia, western Asia, and northeastern Africa. It has no clear boundaries, often used as a synonym to Near East, in opposition to Far East....
, across Central Asia
Central Asia

Central Asia is a region of Asia from the Caspian Sea in the west to central China in the east, and from southern Russia in the north to northern India in the south....
 to western China
China

China is a Culture of China, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
.

The genus Crocus is placed botanically in the iris family (Iridaceae
Iridaceae

Iridaceae is a family of plants in Order Asparagales, taking its name from the Iris . It includes a number of other well known cultivated plants, such as the Freesia, the Gladiolus and the Crocus....
).






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Eiger
Crocus (plural: crocus, crocuses) is a genus
Genus

A genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the classification of living and fossil organisms. The taxonomic ranks are domain , kingdom , phylum, class , order , family , genus, and species....
 of perennial
Perennial plant

A perennial plant or perennial is a plant that lives for more than two years. When used by gardeners or horticulturalists, this term applies specifically to perennial herbaceous plants....
 flowering plant
Flowering plant

The flowering plants or angiosperms are the most widespread group of Embryophytes. The flowering plants and the gymnosperms are the only extant groups of Spermatophyte....
s, native to a large area from coastal and subalpine areas of central and southern Europe
Europe

Europe is, conventionally, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural , the Caspian Sea, and by the Caucasus Mountains to the southeast....
 (including the islands of the Aegean
Aegean Sea

The Aegean Sea is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea located between the southern Balkans and Anatolian peninsulas, i.e., between the mainlands of Greece and Turkey respectively....
), North Africa
North Africa

North Africa or Northern Africa is the northernmost region of the African continent, separated by the Sahara from Sub-Saharan Africa.Geopolitically, the United Nations subregion of Northern Africa includes the following seven countries or territories:...
 and the Middle East
Middle East

File:GreaterMiddleEast1.pngThe Middle East is a region that spans southwestern Asia, western Asia, and northeastern Africa. It has no clear boundaries, often used as a synonym to Near East, in opposition to Far East....
, across Central Asia
Central Asia

Central Asia is a region of Asia from the Caspian Sea in the west to central China in the east, and from southern Russia in the north to northern India in the south....
 to western China
China

China is a Culture of China, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
.

The genus Crocus is placed botanically in the iris family (Iridaceae
Iridaceae

Iridaceae is a family of plants in Order Asparagales, taking its name from the Iris . It includes a number of other well known cultivated plants, such as the Freesia, the Gladiolus and the Crocus....
). The plants grow from corm
Corm

A corm is a short, vertical, swollen underground plant Plant stem that serves as a storage organ used by some plants to survive winter or other adverse conditions such as summer drought and heat ....
s and are mainly hardy
Hardiness (plants)

Hardiness of plants is a term used to describe their ability to survive adverse growing conditions. It is usually limited to discussions of climatic adversity....
 perennials, and are found in a wide range of habitat
Habitat (ecology)

A habitat is an ecological or Natural_environment area that is inhabited by a particular animal or plant species. It is the natural environment in which an organism lives, or the physical environment that surrounds a species population....
s, including woodland, scrub and meadows.

There are about eighty species of crocus (of which approximately 30 are cultivated). Their cup-shaped, solitary, salverform flowers taper off into a narrow tube. Their color varies enormously, although lilac, mauve, yellow and white are predominant. The grass-like, ensiform leaf
Leaf

In botany, a leaf is an above-ground plant Organ specialized for photosynthesis. For this purpose, a leaf is typically flat and thin, to expose the cells containing chloroplast to light over a broad area, and to allow light to penetrate fully into the tissues....
 shows generally a white central stripe along the leaf axis. The leaf margin is entire. Crocuses typically have three stamens. The spice saffron
Saffron

Saffron is a spice derived from the dried gynoecium of the flower of the saffron crocus , a species of crocus in the family Iridaceae. The flower has three Carpels, which are the anatomical terms of location ends of the plant's carpels....
 is obtained from the stigmas of Crocus sativus, an autumn/fall-blooming species
Species

In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring....
.

The name of the genus is derived from the Greek
Greek language

Greek is an Indo-European languages native to the southern Balkan peninsula, the language of the Greek people. It forms an independent branch within Indo-European....
 ??????, krokos (attested in Homer
Homer

Homer is traditionally held to be the author of the ancient Greek language epic poems the Iliad and the Odyssey, as well as of the Homeric Hymns....
's Iliad
ILiad

The iLiad is an electronic handheld device, or e-book device, which can be used for document reading and editing. Like the Sony Reader or Amazon Kindle, the iLiad makes use of an electronic paper display....
, Book XIV, verse 347). In Semitic languages
Semitic languages

File:Amarna Akkadian letter.pngThe Semitic languages are a group of related languages whose living representatives are spoken by more than 467 million people across much of the Middle East, North Africa and the Horn of Africa....
 is (Hebrew
Hebrew language

Hebrew is a Semitic languages of the Afro-Asiatic languages. Modern Hebrew is spoken by more than seven million people in Israel and Classical Hebrew is used for prayer or study in Jews communities around the world....
 karkom, Aramaic
Aramaic language

Aramaic is a Semitic languages with a 3,000-year history. It has been the language of administration of empires and the language of divine worship....
 kurkama, Persian
Persian language

name=Persian|nativename=|pronunciation=[f??r'si]|image=|caption=Farsi in Perso-Arabic script |states= Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Bahrain....
 and Arabic
Arabic language

Arabic is a Central Semitic language, thus related to and classified alongside other Semitic languages languages such as Hebrew language and Aramaic language....
 kurkum, all meaning saffron or saffron yellow). In Greek, the word is also used for the similarly colored egg yolk
Egg yolk

An egg yolk is the part of an Egg which serves as the food source for the developing embryo inside. Prior to fertilization the yolk together with the germinal disc is a single Cell ....
.

Other uses of the name crocus

Though some true crocus bloom with the fall (autumn) rains, after summer's heat and drought, the name autumn crocus is often used as a common name for Colchicum
Colchicum

Colchicum is a genus of flowering plants containing around sixty species of perennial plants which grow from corms. It is a member of family Colchicaceae, and is native to West Asia and part of the Mediterranean coast....
, which is in the lily family (Liliaceae
Liliaceae

The Liliaceae, or the lily family, is a family of monocotyledons in the order Liliales. Plants in this family have linear leaves, mostly with parallel veins but with several having net venation , and flower arranged in threes....
), and which has six stamens; it is also known as meadow saffron, though unlike true saffron
Saffron

Saffron is a spice derived from the dried gynoecium of the flower of the saffron crocus , a species of crocus in the family Iridaceae. The flower has three Carpels, which are the anatomical terms of location ends of the plant's carpels....
 the plant is toxic. The so-called prairie crocus
Pasque flower

A pasque flower is a deciduous Perennial plant that is found in short clumps in meadows and prairies of North America and Eurasia. The genus Pulsatilla includes about 30 species, many of which are valued for their finely-dissected Leaf, solitary bell-shaped flowers, and plumed seed heads....
 (formerly Anemone patens, now Pulsatilla patens or P. ludoviciana) belongs to the buttercup family (Ranunculaceae
Ranunculaceae

Ranunculaceae is a family of flowering plants also known as the "buttercup family" or "crowfoot family". The family name is derived from the genus Ranunculus....
).

True autumn crocuses

Most true autumn crocus flower in September to November in the northern hemisphere. Some flower before their leaves appear. Autumn/fall flowering species include: Crocus banaticus (syn. C. iridiflorus), C.cancellatus, C. goulimyi, C. hadriaticus, C. kotschyanus (syn. C. zonatus), C. laevigatus, C. ligusticus (syn. C. medius ), C. niveus, C. nudiflorus, C. ochroleucus, C. pulchellus, C. sativus (saffron crocus), C. serotinus, C. speciosus, C. tournefortii. Crocus laevigatus has a long flowering-period which starts in late autumn or early winter and may continue into February.


In cultivation


As one of the first flowers to bloom in spring, the large hybridized and selected "Dutch crocus" are popular with gardeners. Crocus flowers and leaves are protected from frost by a waxy cuticle; in areas where snow and frost occasionally occur in the early spring it is not uncommon to see early-flowering crocus blooming through a light late snowfall.

Most crocus species and hybrids should be planted in a sunny position, in gritty, well-drained soil, although a few prefer shadier sites in moist soil. Some are suitable for naturalising in grass. The corms should be planted about 3–4 cm deep; in heavy soils a quantity of sharp grit should be dug in to improve drainage.

Some crocuses, especially C. tommasinianus and its selected forms and hybrids (such as 'Whitewell Purple' and 'Ruby Giant') seed prolifically and are ideal for naturalising. They can, however, become weeds in rock gardens, where they will often appear in the middle of choice, mat-forming alpine plants and can be difficult to remove.

History


Cultivation and harvesting of crocus was first documented in the Mediterranean, notably on the island of Crete
Crete

Crete is the largest of the Greek islands and the List of islands in the Mediterranean largest island in the Mediterranean Sea at 8,336 km? ....
. Frescos are extant at the Knossos
Knossos

Knossos , also known as the Knossos Palace is the largest Bronze Age archaeological site on Crete and probably the ceremonial and political center of the Minoan civilization and culture....
 site on Crete as well as from a comparably aged site on Santorini
Santorini

Santorini is a small, circular archipelago of volcano islands located in the southern Aegean Sea, about 200 km southeast from Greece's mainland....
.

The first crocus seen in the Netherlands
Netherlands

The Netherlands is a country that is part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It is a parliamentary democratic constitutional monarchy. The Netherlands is located in North-West Europe, and bordered by the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east....
, where Crocus species are not native, were from corms brought back from Constantinople by the Holy Roman Emperor's ambassador to the Sublime Porte, Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq
Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq

Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq was a writer, Herbalism and diplomat in the employ of three generations of List of rulers of Austria.The illegitimate son of the Seigneur de Busbecq, Georges Ghiselin, and his mistress Catherine Hespiel, he grew up at Busbecq Castle , studying in Wervik and Comines-Warneton - at the time, all part of Spain W...
, in the 1560s. A few corms were forwarded to Carolus Clusius
Charles de l'Écluse

Charles de l'?cluse, L'Escluse, or Carolus Clusius , seigneur de Wat?nes, was the Flanders doctor and pioneering botanist, perhaps the most influential of all 16th century scientific horticultures....
 at the botanical garden
Botanical garden

Botanical gardens grow a wide variety of plants primarily to categorize and document for scientific purposes. Botanists and horticulturalists tend the flora and maintain the garden's library and herbarium of dried and documented plant material....
 in Leiden
Leiden

Media:Nl-Leiden.ogg is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland in the Netherlands and has 118,000 inhabitants. It forms a single urban area with Oegstgeest, Leiderdorp, Voorschoten, Valkenburg, Rijnsburg and Katwijk, with 254,000 inhabitants....
. By 1620, the approximate date of Ambrosius Bosschaert's painting (illustration, left), new garden varieties had been developed, such as the cream-colored crocus feathered with bronze at the base of the bouquet, similar to varieties still in the market. Bosschaert, working from a preparatory drawing to paint his composed piece, which spans the whole of Spring, exaggerated the crocus so that it passes for a tulip, but its narrow, grasslike leaves give it away.

Species

Crocus Angustifolius
Crocus Sativus2
Crocus Vernus 1
Crocus Verns Albiflorus
The taxonomic
Taxonomy

Taxonomy is the practice and science of classification. The word comes from the Greek language ', taxis and ', nomos .Taxonomies, or taxonomic schemes, are composed of taxonomic units known as taxa , or kinds of things that are arranged frequently in a hierarchical structure....
 characteristics are based mainly on the presence or absence of a prophyll (a basal spathe) and the aspect of the style and the corm tunic.

1 Subgenus Crocus

A. Section Crocus


Series Kotschyani
  • Crocus autranii
  • Crocus gilanicus (discovered in 1973 and named after Gilan province in Iran where it was first found)
  • Crocus karduchorum
  • Crocus kotschyanus - Kotschy's crocus
  • Crocus ochroleucus
  • Crocus scharojanii
  • Crocus vallicola


Series Longiflori
  • Crocus goulimyi (see also Constantine Goulimis
    Constantine Goulimis

    Constantine Goulimis , was a lawyer and successful amateur botanist. He discovered several species of Greek plants.Education and career...
    )
  • Crocus longiflorus - Italian crocus
  • Crocus ligusticus (Syn. Crocus medius)
  • Crocus niveus
  • Crocus serotinus - late crocus


Series Scardici
  • Crocus pelistericus
  • Crocus scardicus


Series Verni
  • Crocus baytopiorum
  • Crocus etruscus
  • Crocus kosaninii
  • Crocus tommasinianus - early crocus
  • Crocus vernus
    Crocus vernus

    Crocus vernus is a plant of the Crocus genus in the Iridaceae family.Its cultivars and that of Crocus flavus are used as ornamental plants....
     - spring crocus, Dutch crocus


Series Versicolores
  • Crocus cambessedesii
  • Crocus corsicus
  • Crocus imperati
  • Crocus malyi
  • Crocus minimus
  • Crocus versicolor - cloth-of-silver crocus


Series Crocus
  • Crocus asumaniae
  • Crocus cartwrightianus
    Crocus cartwrightianus

    'Crocus cartwrightianus' is an eastern Mediterranean autumn-flowering species of crocus, and is of the family Iridaceae . C. cartwrightianus is the wild precursor of the domesticated and now widely cultivated triploid C....
  • Crocus sativus - saffron crocus (a sterile
    Infertility

    Infertility primarily refers to the biological inability of a person to contribute to fertilization. Infertility may also refer to the state of a woman who is unable to carry a pregnancy to full term....
     triploid mutant
    Mutant

    A mutant is an individual, organism, or new genetic character arising or resulting from an instance of mutation, which is a base-pair sequence change within the DNA of a gene or chromosome of an organism resulting in the creation of a new character or Trait not found in the wild type....
    )
  • Crocus hadriaticus
  • Crocus mathewii
  • Crocus moabiticus
  • Crocus oreocreticus
  • Crocus pallasii
  • Crocus thomasii


B. Section Nudiscapus


Series Aleppici
  • Crocus aleppicus
  • Crocus boulosii
  • Crocus veneris
  • Crocus saris
Series Biflori
  • Crocus adanensis
  • Crocus aerius
  • Crocus almehensis
  • Crocus biflorus - silvery crocus, Scotch crocus
  • Crocus caspius
  • Crocus chrysanthus - golden crocus
  • Crocus cyprius
  • Crocus danfordiae
  • Crocus hartmannianus
  • Crocus kerndorffiorum
  • Crocus leichtlinii
  • Crocus paschei
  • Crocus pestalozzae
  • Crocus wattiorum


Series Carpetani
  • Crocus carpetanus
  • Crocus nevadensis


Series Flavi
  • Crocus antalyensis
  • Crocus candidus
  • Crocus flavus - yellow crocus
  • Crocus graveolens
  • Crocus hyemalis
  • Crocus olivieri
  • Crocus vitellinus


Series Intertexti
  • Crocus fleischeri


Series Laevigatae
  • Crocus boryi
  • Crocus laevigatus
  • Crocus tournefortii


Series Orientales
  • Crocus alatavicus
  • Crocus korolkowii - celandine crocus
  • Crocus michelsonii


Series Reticulati
  • Crocus abantensis
  • Crocus ancyrensis - Ankara crocus
  • Crocus angustifolius - cloth-of-gold crocus
  • Crocus cancellatus
  • Crocus cvijicii
  • Crocus dalmaticus
  • Crocus gargaricus
  • Crocus hermoneus
  • Crocus reticulatus
  • Crocus robertianus
  • Crocus rujanensis
  • Crocus sieberi - Cretan crocus
  • Crocus sieheanus


Series Speciosi
  • Crocus speciosus - Bieberstein's crocus, large purple crocus
  • Crocus pulchellus - hairy crocus


2. Subgenus Crociris
  • Crocus banaticus
    Crocus banaticus

    Crocus banaticus is a perennial plant belonging to the Iridaceae family and the genus Crocus. It grows in the Balkans, particularly in Romania....

External links