Crocus cartwrightianus

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Crocus cartwrightianus
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Monocots
Order: Asparagales
Family: Iridaceae
Genus: Crocus
Species:
C. cartwrightianus
Binomial name
Crocus cartwrightianus

Crocus cartwrightianus is a

perennial growing to 5 cm (2 in). The flowers, in shades of lilac or white with purple veins and prominent red stigmas, appear with the leaves in autumn and winter.[2]

Description

The flower style divides while still within the throat of the flower, well below the bases of the anthers. The branches of the stigma are taller than the anthers and about the same length as the petals. The throat of the flower is bearded. The leaves and flowers are produced at the same.[3][clarification needed]

The Latin specific epithet cartwrightianus refers to the 19th century British Consul to Constantinople, John Cartwright.[4]

C. cartwrightianus is the presumed wild progenitor of the domesticated

triploid Crocus sativus – the saffron crocus[5][6][7] with a population in Attica, Greece suggested as the closest known modern population to the saffron ancestors.[8]
It had previously been believed that saffron originated in Iran,[9] Greece[10] or Mesopotamia.[9]

Habitat

This species is commonly found growing on limestone soil areas of the Attica Peninsula of Greece.

Cultivation

There is evidence that this plant was cultivated in

Middle Minoan Period, as exhibited by a mural, the "Saffron Gatherer", illustrating the gathering of crocuses.[11][12] In the 19th century, wild Crocus cartwrightianus was harvested on Andros in the islands of the Cyclades, for medicinal purposes and the stigmas for making a pigment called Zafran.[13]

This plant,[14] has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.

C. cartwrightianus 'Albus'

References

  1. doi:10.17660/ActaHortic.2004.650.6
    . Retrieved 6 April 2024.
  2. ISBN 978-1405332965
    .
  3. JSTOR 4114421
    .
  4. ISBN 9781845337315
    .
  5. ^ M. Grilli Caiola - Saffron reproductive biology
  6. S2CID 49409790
    .
  7. PMID 30690735
    .
  8. PMID 30946897
    . Retrieved 6 April 2024.
  9. ^
    S2CID 28214061
    .
  10. S2CID 44054590
    .
  11. ^ C.Michael Hogan, Knossos Fieldnotes, the Modern Antiquarian (2007)
  12. PMID 35283878
    .
  13. ^ Maw, George (1886). A Monograph of the Genus Crocus. Soho Square, London: Dulau and Co. pp. 87, 164, 207, 250. Retrieved 6 April 2024.
  14. ^ "RHS Plant Selector - Crocus cartwrightianus". Retrieved 30 July 2020.

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Crocus_cartwrightianus&oldid=1220878962"