Two Autumn Crocuses

COMPARISON OF AUTUMN FLOWERING, AUTUMN CROCUSES

Meadow saffron and saffron crocus are both autumn flowering crocus, but of differing families. We get the saffron used in cooking from saffron crocus (crocus sativus), below. 

Note, the colchium has an irregularly shaped corm and the crocus used for saffron has a symmetrically shaped corm. Colchium is a perennial herb with leaves up to 25 cm (10 in) long. The flowers are solitary, 4–7 cm (2–3 in) across, with six tepals and six stamens with orange anthers and three white styles. Crocuses have 3 stamens and 3 styles.

I. Meadow Saffron

     Colchicum autumnale, commonly known as autumn crocus, meadow saffron, or naked ladies, is a toxic autumn-blooming flowering plant that resembles the true crocuses, but is a member of the plant family Colchicaceae, unlike the true crocuses which belong to the family Iridaceae. The name "naked ladies" comes from the fact that the flowers emerge from the ground long before the leaves appear. Despite the vernacular name of "meadow saffron", this plant is not the source of saffron, which is obtained from the saffron crocus, Crocus sativus – and that plant too is sometimes called "autumn crocus".

 Autumn crocus, Meadow saffron, naked lady. Colchicum autumnale,from the Colchicaceae family can be toxic and is the source of colchine used in pharmaceuticals and should never be confused with crocus satvius, the source of the spice, saffron.

COLCHICUM AUTUMNALE Flora von Deutschland, Osterreich und der Schweiz Otto Wilhelm Thome 1885, gera, germany

II. Saffron crocus

Saffron crocus (source of saffron spice)

Crocus sativus  Iridaceae family

Kohler's Medizinal Pflanz

 Franz Eugen Kohler, 1897

Saffron filaments

The stamen of a flower-the part that produces the pollen- consists of a slender stalk. The stamen is composed of a filamentor threadthat supports the anther, which is where the pollen develops. Filament is from the latin word filum, which means, "thread".

Isaiah 35:1

The crocus which was the source of saffron, used as a dye and as a condiment. The saffron flower has a bright orange stigma from which the saffron was obtained. Saffron was present in the Garden of Solomon.

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~ Grassroots Horticulture ~

Pliny the Elder Bibliography

Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/24 – 79), called Pliny the Elder was a Roman author, naturalist and natural philosopher, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the emperor Vespasian. He wrote the encyclopedic Naturalis Historia (Natural History), which became an editorial model for encyclopedias. He spent most of his spare time studying, writing, and investigating natural and geographic phenomena in the field.

Pliny the Elder died in AD 79 in Stabiae while attempting the rescue of a friend and his family by ship from the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, which had already destroyed the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum. The wind caused by the sixth and largest pyroclastic surge of the volcano's eruption did not allow his ship to leave port, and Pliny died during that event.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

• John Bostock and H. T. Riley (1855) at Perseus; the other, of a sizable portion, by Philemon Holland (1601). https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Plin.+Nat.+toc

• James Eason site https://penelope.uchicago.edu/holland/index.html.  Book XII (Foreign plants, especially spices.), Book XIII (More foreign plants: trees, papyrus and other aquatic plants. Another tirade on luxury, masquerading as a description of fancy tables.), Book XIV (Plants of Italy: The vine.), Book XV (Fruit-bearing Trees: Olives, apples, pears, nuts and so on.)
  

• Livius three page biography https://www.livius.org/articles/person/pliny-the-elder

Quotes: 

In these matters the only certainty is that nothing is certain.

Home is where the heart is.

The lust of avarice has so totally seized upon mankind that their wealth seems rather to possess them than they possess their wealth.

No mortal man, moreover is wise at all moments.

The depth of darkness to which you can descend and still live is an exact measure of the height to which you can aspire to reach.

The enjoyments of this life are not equal to its evils.

 References                                                             

ITIS  Integrated Taxonomy Information System

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for

~Grassroots Horticulture~

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The Fresh Figs of Summer

“Why not go out on a limb? That's where the fruit is.” Will Rogers

Figs

The heavy rains in the spring caused my fig tree to fall over. Rather than cutting it back to the ground I let it leaf out and to my surprise it produced fruit. The fruit has been slow to ripen due to the stress and lack of water. I read about figs before I selected my fig tree, and  Dr. George McEachern with Texas A and M is one of the best experts on fruit growing in Texas. He has an information sheet online that is helpful to anyone contemplating adding a fig tree here in Texas (Link).

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Figs are one of the seven species listed in the Bible, 

Deuteronomy8:  7 For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land, ^fa land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, flowing out in the valleys and hills, 8 a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey, 9 a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity, in which you will lack nothing, a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you can dig copper. 10 And you shall eat and be full, and you shall bless the LORD your God for the good land he has given you.

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The botanical prints below, helped botanist understand species that are native to other parts of the world. 

1771

Georg Dionysius Ehret (1708 - 1770)

Trew, C.J., Plantae selectae quarum imagines ad exemplaria naturalia Londini, in hortis curiosorum nutrit, vol. 8: t. 73 (1771) [G.D. Ehret]

Bibliography________________________________________________________

Condit, Ira J. Fig Culture in California. Berkeley, Calif: College of Agriculture, University of California, 1933. Print.

Eisen, Gustavus A. The Fig: Its History, Culture, and Curing: With a Descriptive Catalogue of the Known Varieties of Figs. Washington: Washington, Govt. print. off, 1901. Print.

Stansel, R H, and R H. Wyche. Fig Culture in the Gulf Coast Region of Texas. College Station, Tex: Texas Agricultural Experiment Station, 1932. Print.

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