2008/11/25 by R. Kandeler, W. R. Ullrich · 2 citations
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · #Art #Biology #Botanical Studies and Applications #Botany #Botany and Plant Ecology Studies #Crocus #Ecology #Geography #Mediterranean climate #Plant Ecology and Taxonomy Studies
paper · doi:10.1093/jxb/ern360
published in Journal of Experimental Botany 60(1), 6-8 (Oxford University Press)
openalex publication_date 2008/11/25 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/23
In countries with a temperate or cold climate, January is the month with the fewest wild flowers. But it is also the month of increasing day-length and hope. Crocus is placed here because January is between the seasons of autumn-flowering and spring-flowering species and early blooms may often be seen in milder years. As a symbol plant crocus is a messenger of floral resurrection and in this respect also relevant to us in our cultural view of botany. Thus, crocus may be regarded as a plant of encouragement. Crocus is a genus of the Iridaceae with long-tubed flowers. They grow mainly on stony and rocky pastureland in the mountains. Around the Mediterranean Crocus sieberi produces flowers in spring, with colours in white, light violet, and dark violet. In the Alps, C. albiflorus is a familiar flower when the snow melts in spring. In conspicuous contrast to the colour of its perianth are the brilliantly orange stigmas. Crocus cartwrightianus, which grows on the Cyclades as well as on Crete, is a blue–violet flowering species. It is presumed to be the original species from which the valuable saffron was derived, but its derivative C. sativus has been cultivated since ancient times in large parts of the Mediterranean and northern India for the high saffron content of its stigma. Its flowers open in autumn. The third important species, C. sieberi can be found to this day in the whole of Greece, including Euboea, Samos, and Crete (Fig. 1). Top: Crocus sieberi, Chelmos mountains, Peloponnese. (Kandeler). Bottom: Two Minoan fresco remnants with crocus depictions. Museum Heraklion, Crete. (Kandeler). The dye in saffron is crocin, a carotenoid ester, and it was used mainly to dye cloth. In addition, the stigmas of C. sativus contain the glycoside picrocrocin, a metabolite that hydrolyses to the fragrant safranol and glucose, which means that it is also valued as a spice and for medical purposes. Saffron has always been very valuable because of its low yield: more than 100 000 stigma branches are required to obtain 1 kg of the dry spice. Even today, saffron is cultivated from Morocco and Spain to Middle Asia and in a single remote village in the Swiss mountains (Mund in the upper Valais), but nowhere does the species grow in the wild. Thus, C. sativus is a plant which is known only as its cultivated form. It is triploid, hence the flowers are sterile and the plants are propagated by filial bulbs (Franke, 1997; Beuchert, 2004). The Hittites living on the Anatolian plateau about 2000 BC celebrated a spring festivity in which certain bulb plants played a role. Mathew and Baytop (1984), referring to the results of MS Ar, suppose that it was mainly the Anatolian crocus species. The Hittite name for saffron was Azupiru and the plant was already being cultivated at that time, as portrayed on a small slab found in Hattusa. Even today in Turkey on the sixth of May a spring festival called Hidrellez is celebrated at which a specific pilav may be prepared from wheat grist and crocus bulbs. Crocus species in spring are a symbol of the awakening of nature, of resurrection, even of heavenly bliss, in autumn an indication of nature's later rebirth. This property may have been of great importance for the cult of Ariadne, the goddess of vegetation on Crete and Thera. On the volcanic island of Thera (Santorini) numerous illustrations of Crocus date from Minoan times. The flowers have been found decorating wall frescos, on vessels, and on cult objects (Doumas, 1992). On Cretan frescos the flowers are white, pink or blue, often in a rocky natural habitat (Fig. 1 bottom, 2). In Akrotiri on Thera frescos with detailed scenes of young girls picking crocus have been excavated. There is no mistaking that, in the foreground, the flowers are being picked from rocks and hence from wild plants (Fig. 2). However, in the background, a regular pattern of crocus plant clusters suggests crocus in cultivation, a saffron plantation. In the second millennium BC at the time when the frescos of Thera were painted, such saffron cultures also existed in the Nile delta of Egypt and were quite common elsewhere. The need for saffron yellow for dyeing was so great that wild plants alone could not cater for this demand. The search for plants in the open countryside was probably restricted to collecting for religious offerings to a vegetation goddess (comparable to Ariadne of the Minoan culture). Saffron flowers were harvested in the months of October to December and this was supposedly carried out by girls during their preparation for initiation into adulthood. Two crocus pickers, eastern wall of upper floor, Xeste 3, Akrotiri, Thera. (Doumas, 1992). The fresco (Fig. 2) shows a young girl in festive dress (Fig. 2, right side), stretching both her hands to the crocus growing on the rock. She has placed her collecting basket behind her on the ground. She is characterized as a novice or apprentice by her hairstyle: a large part of her head seems to be shaved, only a forelock and a ponytail are left (Doumas, 1992). The free growth of hair was probably the most important sign of having terminated the novice stage or apprenticeship (Kandeler, 2006). The other girl on this fresco (Fig. 2, left side) has a hair style consisting of short curls and she seems to be helping or directing the novices in harvesting crocus flowers. The picking movement of her right hand is imitated by the novice. Another fresco of the series in the same building (not shown) depicts a goddess sitting on a throne, characterized by a large collecting basket, and the surrounding figures wear saffron-coloured dresses. In connection with the initiation ceremony into adulthood, both the autumn and spring flowering species of crocus can be regarded as an essential symbol of the renewal of life. Little is known of the Crocus Goddess, but these frescoes clearly depict the crocus as an essential symbol celebrating a new phase of life, the adulthood of young girls and boys.