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Crocus (plural: crocus, crocuses or croci) is a genus of perennial flowering plants, native to a large area from coastal and subalpine areas of central and southern Europe (including the islands of the Aegean), North Africa and the Middle East, across Central Asia to western China.
The genus Crocus is placed botanically in the iris family (Iridaceae). The plants grow from corms and are mainly hardy perennials, and are found a wide range of habitats, including woodland, scrub and meadows.
There are about eighty species of crocus, of which approximately 30 are commonly cultivated. Their flowers are cup-shaped, solitary, salverform, tapering off into a narrow tube; they vary enormously in colour, though lilac, mauve, yellow and white are predominant. The grass-like, ensiform leaf generally shows a white central stripe along the leaf axis. The leaf margin is entire. All crocuses typically have three stamens.
The name of the genus is derived from the Latin adjective crocatus, meaning saffron yellow. The spice saffron is obtained from the stigmas of Crocus sativus, an autumn/fall-blooming species.
True autumn crocuses
Crocus vernus 'Pickwick', a Dutch hybrid
Crocus 'E.A. Bowles', a Chrysanthus hybrid
Crocus cultivars
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. 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 selected hybrid Dutch crocus are popular with gardeners. However, in areas where snow and frost occasionally occur in the early spring it is not uncommon for early-flowering crocuses to suddenly wither and die from a unseasonable frost or 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
Saffron gatherers appear in Minoan frescos on the island of Santorini in the Aegean Sea. See History of saffron
Composed Bouquet of Spring Flowers, by Ambrosius Bosschaert, c. 1620 (Louvre Museum)
The first crocus seen in the Netherlands, where Crocus species are not native, were corms brought back from the Holy Roman Emperor's ambassador to the Sublime Porte, A. Ghislain de Busbeq, in the 1560s. A few corms were forwarded to Carolus Clusius at the botanical garden in Leiden. 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
The taxonomic 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 Kotschyani
- Series Longiflori
- Crocus goulimyi
- Crocus longiflorus - Italian crocus
- Crocus medius
- Crocus niveus
- Crocus serotinus - late crocus
- Series Scardici
- Series Verni
- Crocus baytopiorum
- Crocus etruscus
- Crocus kosaninii
- Crocus tommasinianus - early crocus
- Crocus vernus - spring crocus
- Series Versicolores
- Crocus cambessedesii
- Crocus corsicus
- Crocus imperati
- Crocus malyi
- Crocus minimus
- Crocus versicolor - cloth-of-silver crocus
- Series Versicolores
- Series Crocus
- Crocus sativus - saffron crocus (a sterile triploid mutant)
- Series Crocus
- B. Section Nudiscapus
- Series Aleppici
- Series Biflori
- Series Carpetani
- Series Flavi
- Series Intertexti
- Series Laevigatae
- Series Orientales
- Crocus alatavicus
- Crocus korolkowii - celandine crocus
- Crocus michelsonii
- Series Orientales
- 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 - Sieber's crocus
- Crocus sieheanus
- Series Reticulati
- Series Speciosi
- Crocus speciosus - Bieberstein's crocus
- Crocus pulchellus - hairy crocus
- Series Speciosi
2. Subgenus Crociris
Misuses 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 misused as a common name for Colchicum, which is in the lily family (Liliaceae), and which has six stamens; it is also (confusingly and incorrectly) known as "meadow saffron". The so-called "prairie crocus" (formerly Anemone patens, now Pulsatilla patens or P. ludoviciana) belongs to the buttercup family (Ranunculaceae).
References
- Brian Mathew, Christopher Grey-Wilson, Bulbs, (ill. Marjorie Blamey), Collins, 1981
- Brian Mathew, Crocus: A Revision of the Genus Crocus, Timber Press, 1983. ISBN 0-917304-23-3
- Brian Mathew, Flowering Bulbs for the garden, Collingridge/Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, 1987. ISBN 0-600-35175-0