Crocus sativus Seeds | Saffron Safflower Dried
LATIN NAME: Crocus sativus
COMMON NAME: Saffron Crocus
Plant Profile
Saffron crocus is an autumn-flowering bulb, 10-15 cm tall, with narrow grey-green leaves and a single lilac flower that opens in October. Each flower carries three deep red stigmas, and those stigmas are saffron, the most expensive spice in the world by weight.
The plant grows from a corm, which multiplies slowly underground and is lifted and divided every few years. It flowers for two or three weeks in autumn, and the harvest is done by hand, in the morning, before the flowers open fully.
Crocus sativus comes from the eastern Mediterranean and has been cultivated for at least three thousand years. It is a sterile triploid, which is the key fact about the plant: it sets no viable seed, and every saffron crocus in the world is a clone propagated from corms.
Science & Biotechnology
The colour and the value come from crocin, a water-soluble carotenoid glycoside, and the aroma from picrocrocin and safranal. It takes about 150,000 flowers to produce a kilogram of dried saffron, which is why the price is what it is and why adulteration is ancient.
The sterility is chromosomal: Crocus sativus is a triploid with three sets of chromosomes, so meiosis fails and no viable gametes form. That means there is no such thing as saffron seed, and anything sold as saffron seed is either a different crocus or a different plant altogether.
The name saffron is also applied, wrongly, to safflower, Carthamus tinctorius, which is sold as honghua and used as a cheaper red colouring. The two are unrelated, and the substitution is one of the oldest frauds in the spice trade.
Uses & Benefits
The stigmas are used to colour and flavour rice, paella, risotto and sweets, and a pinch is enough for a dish for four. The spice is also used as a dye for cloth and as a traditional medicine.
In the garden the plant is grown for its autumn flowers, which appear when little else is in bloom, and it suits a sunny, well-drained border or a pot. Commercially the crop is grown in Iran, Afghanistan, Spain and Kashmir, and the harvest is entirely manual. Seed is not available, and the planting material is corms.
Growing from Seed
Plant corms in late summer, 10-15 cm deep and 10 cm apart, in full sun and a light, well-drained soil. Saffron needs a dry summer rest and a sunny autumn, and it rots in wet ground.
Lift and divide the corms every three or four years, after the foliage has died down, and replant the largest ones. Water sparingly in autumn and not at all in summer. Harvest the stigmas in the morning as the flowers open, dry them quickly in a warm dark place, and store in an airtight jar away from light. Corm size decides whether a plant flowers in its first autumn, so buy the largest corms available.
Our Take
A crop that cannot be grown from seed at all, which is worth knowing before buying anything sold as saffron seed.
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