Crocus is a genus in the iris family comprising about 80 species of perennials growing from corms .

Many are cultivated for their flowers in autumn, winter, or spring. Crocuses are native to woodland, scrub and meadows from sea level to alpine tundra in central and southern Europe, North Africa and the Middle East, on the islands of the Aegean, and across Central Asia to western China.

The name of the genus is derived from the Greek krokos. This in turn is probably a loan word from a Semitic language, related to Hebrew karkōm, Aramaic kurkama, Persian and Arabic kurkum, which mean saffron or saffron yellow. The name ultimately comes from Sanskrit kunkumam.
There are about eighty species of crocus (of which approximately 30 are cultivated). Their cup-shaped, solitary, salverform flowers taper off into a narrow tube. Their color varies enormously, although lilac, mauve, yellow and white are predominant. The grass-like, ensiform leaf shows generally a white central stripe along the leaf axis. The leaf margin is entire. Crocuses typically have three stamens. The spice saffron is obtained from the stigmas of Crocus sativus, an autumn/fall-blooming species.
 

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article Crocus and is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.