The varieties of crocus experience
March 16, 2016 Riverdale Press Sura Jeselsohn
Crocuses are the iconic spring flower. Although we see the tips
of the daffodils long before the end of winter, the first flower to
spring up is the colorful, cheerful crocus that opens in the bright
sunlight and closes again as the sun moves towards the horizon,
only to reopen the next day. That crocus, known scientifically as
Crocus vernus, comes in white, purple and yellow and is a delight
when planted in masses, particularly on sloping hills. The fact
that crocus is synonymous with glee, youthfulness and cheerfulness
is probably not a surprise when you learn that vernus is the Latin
word for youthful and was once a boy’s name. The term crocus comes
from crocatus, which is a Latin adjective for saffron yellow.
However, our delightful spring crocus, which is planted in the
fall, is not the source of the very expensive spice we call
saffron, which is used extensively in various cuisines including
Spanish, French and Persian. That plant is, however, a relative of
Crocus vernus named Crocus sativus — sativus is Latin for
cultivated — and while it, too, is planted in the fall, it will not
bloom until the following autumn. The sativus suffix used as the
species designation may refer to the fact that this plant is
sterile in the same way that the mule, which is a offspring of a
horse and a donkey, is sterile and so Crocus sativus depends on
human intervention for vegetative propagation. This is accomplished
by digging up the corms — a part of the stem that grows underground
and is reinforced with fibrous threads — which are not to be
confused with bulbs, which are layered structures — and removing
and planting the baby corms for a new crop of vigorous plants the
next year.
Saffron is one of the world’s oldest and most expensive spices.
The spice itself comes from the three blood-red stigmas in the
center of the flower and which are the female structures that
normally accept the male pollen as part of the process of creating
a seed. The plant itself is sterile and does not produce male
pollen and so there is nothing for the stigmas to work with.
Instead, over the two-week period that crocus fields bloom, human
gatherers go out and pluck out these stigmas with tweezers. The
stigmas are then dried and sealed in light-tight packets to
maintain the spice’s longevity. Because it takes in excess of
70,000 flowers, which requires a square kilometer in crop area to
yield one pound of saffron-producing stigmas, the price tag becomes
more understandable. Saffron is graded and it is possible to buy
less expensive material, but the lower grades usually contain some
of the yellow styles, which are the male structures. These styles
do not seem to possess much, if any, spice attributes.
Throughout history, saffron has been used not only as a spice,
but also as a medication, a dye, a perfume ingredient and a
pigment. When the color saffron is mentioned, many of us think
first of the saffron-colored robes of Buddhist monks. These days,
those robes are dyed with a resin from trees of the Gamboge
(Garcinia) family because saffron is simply too expensive — if
indeed it was ever really used for that purpose.
Saffron has been known to humanity for a surprisingly long time.
Some 50,000 years ago, saffron was already being used as part of a
red pigment found in cave-paintings in Iraq. There is also
reference to it from the 7th century BCE from a botanical treatise
compiled for the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal. More recently — 3,600
years ago — there are frescoes from the Minoan civilization of
Crete showing the gathering of saffron. That civilization was
terribly impacted by the explosion of Santorini around 1613
BCE.
For those who might now like to grow and dry their own
saffron-producing plants, there are several companies that supply
Crocus sativus corms: www.dutchgrown.com/crocus-saffron.html,
www.brentandbeckysbulbs.com and www.waysidegardens.com. Enjoy!