Saffron
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Saffron is a spice derived from the flower of Crocus sativus, commonly known as the "saffron crocus". The vivid crimson stigma and styles, called threads, are collected and dried for use mainly as a seasoning and colouring agent in food. The saffron crocus was slowly propagated throughout much of Eurasia and was later brought to parts of North Africa, North America, and Oceania.
Saffron crocus, Crocus sativus, with its vivid crimson stigmas and styles
Saffron "threads", plucked from crocus flowers and dried
Crocus flowers which yield red saffron stigmas
Corms
History of saffron
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Human cultivation and use of saffron spans more than 3,500 years and extends across cultures, continents, and civilizations. Saffron, a spice derived from the dried stigmas of the saffron crocus, has through history remained among the world's most costly substances. With its bitter taste, hay-like fragrance, and slight metallic notes, the apocarotenoid-rich saffron has been used as a seasoning, fragrance, dye, and medicine.
Saffron crocus flowers, represented as small red tufts, are gathered by two women in a fragmentary Minoan fresco from the excavation of Akrotiri on the Aegean island of Santorini.
This inaccurate reconstruction of a Minoan fresco from Knossos in Crete depicts a man, which should be a monkey, gathering the crocus harvest.
Safranbolu, Turkey.
A field of saffron crocuses in Iran