Saffron

Harvest time?

A mystery crocus as the label does not match the plant.  It's a seedling from Greek Crocus hadriaticus but looks like it might have crossed with another species.  In appearance it resembles Crocus mathewii (from Turkey) but I have grown forms of the more widespread Crocus cartwrightianus which resemble this plant in flower.

Crocus sativus, the Saffron Crocus,  is not known in the wild but thought to be a form of what we now call Crocus cartwrightianus, selected long ago. The long, red style branches are the Saffron, harvested for culinary use and for use as a dye.  I shall be leaving them in place, hoping to get seed from the plant.  You can see the pollen attached to the tip of the style where the stigmatic surface is located.  I have to wait until late Spring to find out if seed has been set.  The seed capsule stays below ground until the plants begin to go dormant at the end of the growing season.  

In other news, the shop I work in has been sold as part of a merger deal.  After over thirty years working for the same firm I will have a new employer next month.  Quite bizarre!