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Crocus
Crocuses are a genus of about 100 low-growing spring, autumn and winter flowering perennials that grow from corms. Plant them in full sun or light shade with sharp drainage, and let the foliage die back naturally after flowering.
Crocus (; plural: crocuses or croci) is a genus of seasonal flowering plants in the family Iridaceae (iris family) comprising about 100 species of perennials growing from corms.
They are low growing plants, whose flower stems remain underground, that bear relatively large white, yellow, orange or purple flowers and then become dormant after flowering. Many are cultivated for their flowers, appearing in autumn, winter, or spring. The flowers close at night and in overcast weather conditions.
Crocuses are distributed from the Mediterranean, from the Iberian peninsula and North Africa, through central and southern Europe, the islands of the Aegean, the Middle East and across central and southwest Asia to Xinjiang in western China, but most species are restricted to Turkey and Asia Minor and the Balkans, with the Balkan Peninsula having the largest number of species (at least 31), forming the centre of diversity, however they are widely introduced. The distribution of species is described over five contiguous areas from west to east (see map).
The corms of crocuses have been used as foodstuffs in Syria. The carotenoids found in the styles of Crocus species, particularly C. sativus have been shown to inhibit cancer cell proliferation, and have led to interest in potential pharmaceutical applications.
Crocus alexandri · Cloth of gold · Crocus banaticus · Silvery Crocus · Wild Saffron · Snow Crocus · Corsican Crocus · Etruscan Crocus · Yellow crocus · Crocus goulimyi · Saffron Crocus · Sieber's crocus
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Crocus 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.
