Story

The public have an insatiable curiosity to know everything,
except what is worth knowing.       -Oscar Wilde

The knowledge of these flowers goes far back in time. This is shown by the fact that even the Bible in the Book of Songs (4:14) is cited as aromatic and odorous plants.
In ancient Greece they were used to make crowns or spread in theaters or wedding beds. While in ancient Rome it was customary to decorate the tombs with this flower as a wish for an afterlife.
There are various legends around the flower of the “Crocus”. In one of these Croco was a young man in love with the shepherdess Smilliace who was transformed into a flower by the work of Venus or in another version was transformed into a flower by the hermorous god Hermes of the shepherdess. In another it is said that Croco died playing with Mercury and that the flower was born from his blood. In yet another it is said that the flower of the crocus sprouted at the moment when Paride gave his judgment on the most beautiful of the goddesses.

Probably in all these stories we refer to the most known species of this genus: the Crocus sativus called “true saffron” or simply “Crocus”.