At the end of last week the kids found the first crocus blooming in our front yard. This of course inspired me to turn to Wikipedia and share what I learned about the history of crocuses.

There are two stories about the origin of crocuses in Classical mythology:

1. Crocus was a mortal youth who was turned into a flower because he was unhappy in a love affair with the nymph Smilax (who was similarly transformed into bindweed).
2. Crocus was accidentally killed in a game of discus by the god Hermes, who then turned him into a flower.

The spice saffron is harvested from Crocus sativus. This has been documented as far back as the Bronze Age in frescoes found on the Greek islands of Crete and Santorini.

Crocuses were introduced to the Netherlands by Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq, an herbalist and diplomat from Constantinople, in the 1560s. (He is also credited with bringing tulips and possibly lilacs to Western Europe.)

Illustrations of crocuses are found in the Album met bloemen (1596-1610) of Flemish naturalist Anselmus de Boodt (1550-1632).

By 1620, when the painting below was created by Dutch still life painter Ambrosius Bosschaert (1573-1621), new garden varieties of crocuses had been developed.

A taxonomic classification for crocuses was proposed by British botanist Brian Mathew in 1982, though some recent studies (including DNA evidence) suggest that this classification should be reviewed.

I hope that you learned something new today and that you are enjoying signs of spring wherever you live (unless it’s the southern hemisphere)!