【英语时差8,16】番红花

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The earliest blooming crocus, normally seen in colonies in older gardens is pale lavender with small delicate petals¹. When they naturalize or spread across a lawn or garden they create a wonderful lilac haze². The more modern varieties bloom later, especially those known as Dutch crocus, which are showier, larger and have petals with substance and sheen.There are deep purple, white, blue, yellow and variegated³ blooms with thin grass - like foliage⁴. Crocus grow from corms, which are immune to cold, but very attractive to squirrels and rodents⁵. They can be planted in the fall until the ground freezes in sun or partial shade, though the ones in full sun will bloom first. They can be planted in ground cover and are good companions for small early blooming iris⁶ reticulata and the early miniature daffodils.

    The genus name from the Greek “Korkos” meaning threads, and the common name, is the same. The tips of the pistils of the flowers, on which pollen⁷ is deposited during pollination⁸, are called stigmas⁹. Saffron is made by collecting the stigmas of the oldest cultivated crocus (crocus sativa) and this is very painstaking¹⁰ work, as it must be done by hand. Native to Spain, North Africa and the Mediterranean¹¹ region the crocus has been a useful and much loved plant for centuries. An excavation¹² in Crete yielded a jug¹³ decorated with drawings of crocus blooms believed to be made as early as 1500 B.C.

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