Crocus-FOR Erasmus+ project
Collaborative dictionary of mythological plants
Funded by European Union
Target group number: 18
Crocus hybrids
Flowers
Crocus longiflorus
Scientific name: Crocus hybrid
Genus: Crocus
Spicies: Crocus sativus
Vulgar name
Spanish: Azafrán
Basque: Azafraia
Italian: Zafferano
Greek: κρόκος
Morphological description
Crocus species are winter flowering plants which are grown from small corms. Their slender, grooved leaves are dark green striped with white and their cup-shaped flowers may be purple, mauve, white, bronze, yellow or striped with two colours. The maximum height of these plants is about 10-12cm (4-5 inch). Outdoors they produce roots and little or no growth during the cold winter months and have a brief flowering period at the beginning of the spring. After this, most of leaves grow and die down within a couple of months.
Individual flowers will last from two to five days, but plants can last from seven to 12 days. The lasting quality will vary greatly by cultivar as well as the temperature and light levels in which the plants are displayed.
Uses, threats and singularity
Crocus hybrids are the perfect choice for spring displays. They stand well alone or grouped with other spring-flowering and foliage plants. They also make an ideal choice for rock gardens.
Threats:
The corms of the Crocus species can be toxic to some people and other animals if eaten, but these flowering plants are listed as an allergy-safe pollen-producing plant.
Singularity:
Crocus species are native to woodland, scrub and meadows from sea level to alpine tundra in central and southern Europe, North Africa and the Middle East, on the islands of the Aegean, and across Central Asia to western China.
Symbolism
The Hittites living on the Anatolian plateau about 2000 BCcelebrated a spring festivity in which certain bulb plants played a role. Mathew and Baytop (1984), referring to the results of MS Ar, suppose that it was mainly the Anatolian crocus species. The Hittite name for saffron was Azupiru and the plant was already being cultivated at that time, as portrayed on a small slab found in Hattusa. Even today in Turkey on the sixth of May a spring festival called Hidrellez is celebrated at which a specific pilav may be prepared from wheat grist and crocus bulbs.
Crocus species in spring are a symbol of the awakening of nature, of resurrection, even of heavenly bliss, in autumn an indication of nature's later rebirth. This property may have been of great importance for the cult of Ariadne, the goddess of vegetation on Crete and Thera.
On the volcanic island of Thera (Santorini) numerous illustrations ofCrocus date from Minoan times. The flowers have been found decorating wall frescos, on vessels, and on cult objects (Doumas, 1992). On Cretan frescos the flowers are white, pink or blue, often in a rocky natural habitat.
In Akrotiri on Thera frescos with detailed scenes of young girls picking crocus have been excavated. There is no mistaking that, in the foreground, the flowers are being picked from rocks and hence from wild plants. However, in the background, a regular pattern of crocus plant clusters suggests crocus in cultivation, a saffron plantation. In the second millennium BC at the time when the frescos of Thera were painted, such saffron cultures also existed in the Nile delta of Egypt and were quite common elsewhere. The need for saffron yellow for dyeing was so great that wild plants alone could not cater for this demand. The search for plants in the open countryside was probably restricted to collecting for religious offerings to a vegetation goddess (comparable to Ariadne of the Minoan culture). Saffron flowers were harvested in the months of October to December and this was supposedly carried out by girls during their preparation for initiation into adulthood.
Symbolic dreams and inspiration
- The crocus has long been a symbol of youthfulness and cheerfulness. The flower was used by ancient Greeks to ward off the fumes of liquor by weaving the crocus flower into wreaths for the head. The Egyptians also used crocus flowers to dispel the fumes from intoxicating liquors by placing a spray of flowers on wine glasses.
- The ancient Romans were so fond of the fragrance of the crocus that they devised an apparatus to emit a fine spray of its scent on guests as they entered banquets. The fragrance of the crocus was thought to inspire love was even believed to bloom at midnight on Valentine’s Day.
Classical myths related to the plant
In Classical mythology, Crocus was a mortal youth who, because he was unhappy with his love affair with the nymph Smilax, was turned by the gods into a plant bearing his name, the crocus . Smilax is believed to have been given a similar fate and transformed into bindweed.
In another variation of the myth, Crocus was said to be a companion of Hermes and was accidentally killed by the god in a game of discus. Hermes was so distraught at this that he transformed Crocus' body into a flower. The myth is similar to that of Apollon and Hyacinthus, and may indeed be a variation thereof.
In his translation of Nonnos' Dionysiaca, W.H.D. Rouse describes the tale of Crocus as being from the late Classical period and little-known.