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Spring Meadow Saffron

Colchicum bulbocodium

Spring Meadow Saffron
Photo: James Steakley, CC BY-SA 4.0

Spring meadow saffron is a small alpine bulb from European mountains, grown for pink-to-purple crocus-like autumn... no, spring flowers. Plant the bulbs in a sunny, well-drained rock garden where they can form drifts.

Family
Colchicaceae (Colchic family)
Grows as
Bulb
Light
Full sun, Part shade
Water
Water sparingly during active growth and keep dry while dormant in summer.
Soil
Gritty, free-draining soil or rock garden mix.
Temperature
Hardy to well below freezing; protect from prolonged waterlogging in winter.
How easy
Easy
Safety
Toxic: All parts, especially the bulbs and seeds, are poisonous like other Colchicum species, containing colchicine that can cause severe gastrointestinal and systemic effects.
Native range
European Mts. to N. Caucasus
Climate
temperate

About

Colchicum bulbocodium, the spring meadow saffron, is a species of alpine bulbous plant native to mountain ranges across Europe from the Pyrenees to the Caucasus (Spain, France, Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Hungary, Romania, the former Yugoslavia, Ukraine and southern European Russia).

It is cultivated as an ornamental plant in many places. It has flowers considered ideal for the rock garden, which is beautiful en masse. The plant is a hardy spring flower bulb, very small in size, reaching about 7–10 cm high. From April to June, the strap-shaped leaves emerge with pink-to-purple crocus-like flowers, 3–8 cm in diameter. As all the species of the genus Colchicum, the species is a poisonous plant.

Other Colchicum plants

Alpine Autumn Crocus · Autumn crocus · White Autumn Crocus · Colchicum boissieri · False Autumn Crocus · Tenore Autumn Crocus · Colchicum davisii · Colchicum hungaricum · Colchicum kotschyi · Colchicum lingulatum · Indian Colchicum · Large Leaved Autumn Crocus

Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Colchicum bulbocodium by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.

The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.

Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.

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