Example ⟳ +
An example collection, so you can see what this page does. Nothing added here is kept: leaving deletes it.
Crocus cartwrightianus; photograph (c) Evgeny Stambulchik, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Evgeny Stambulchik, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2009-12-08

Crocus cartwrightianus Herb.

Wild Saffron

Iridaceae · Greece, Kriti · listed by its genus as a bulb, tuber or caudex

Add one to my plants
Sow seed
Crocus cartwrightianus, photograph (c) helen1688, some rights reserved (CC BY)Crocus cartwrightianus, photograph (c) Evgeny Stambulchik, some rights reserved (CC BY)Crocus cartwrightianus, photograph Peter coxhead, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia CommonsCrocus cartwrightianus, photograph Peter coxhead, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia CommonsCrocus cartwrightianus, photograph Peter coxhead, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia CommonsCrocus cartwrightianus, photograph Averater, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons 14 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
7.3°C
Record low 3.9 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
26°C
Jul and Aug at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
436mm
7 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
13–50DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Wet winters: the rain comes November to March, read as a winter growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Crocus cartwrightianus is a species of flowering plant in the family Iridaceae. It is native to mainland Greece, Euboea, Crete, Skyros and some islands of the Cyclades. It is a cormous perennial growing to 5 cm (2 in). The flowers, in shades of lilac or white with purple veins and prominent red stigmas, appear with the leaves in autumn and winter.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Crocus cartwrightianus", CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the genus · Crocus

Crocus is a genus of seasonal flowering plants in the family Iridaceae comprising about 100 species of perennials growing from corms.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Crocus", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Grouped as a bulb, tuber or caudex, listed under the genus Crocus in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “tuberous geophyte”.

Seasons

The rain rule reads a winter growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (359 mm of 460 mm) falls in November to March, cooler than the year (wet-season mean 12.4 °C against a yearly mean of 17.5 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: May to September.

Rain

460 mm in the median year at the habitat, 359 mm of it November to March. Wettest month December at 86 mm, driest month July at 1 mm; 3 months under 5 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 387 mm to 759 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 436 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 460 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 13 to 50 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 12, the highest 90th-percentile month 51).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 7.3 °C, the absolute minimum 3.9 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 30.2 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 9.3 °C in February (across the grid cells of the range 5.1 °C to 11.0 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 25.8 °C in August (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 7.3 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 52 to 62% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light. CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected +20 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Group. Listed under the genus Crocus in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “tuberous geophyte”. A group is taken only where Kew's description of the species agrees with the table's listing. The table gives no figure and no prose; the cold floor is the habitat's alone.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Crocus cartwrightianus through the yearWarmest months July and August, mean daily high 26 °C; coldest month February, mean nightly low 9.3 °C; 460 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.0°5°10°15°20°25°30°35°30.2° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER3.9° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100125150mm rainDLI 13–50RH 52–62%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 21 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C12 / 11–1312 / 11–1314 / 12–1516 / 14–2020 / 17–2623 / 21–3126 / 23–3326 / 23–3324 / 22–2821 / 19–2317 / 15–1814 / 13–15
Night °C10 / 5–129 / 5–1111 / 7–1213 / 10–1416 / 14–1720 / 18–2122 / 21–2423 / 21–2420 / 18–2217 / 14–1914 / 10–1611 / 7–13
Rain mm81 / 54–15070 / 41–12050 / 46–7729 / 21–3513 / 11–183 / 1–81 / 0–92 / 0–615 / 6–1838 / 34–6372 / 63–11886 / 68–144
DLI16 / 14–1722 / 20–2331 / 29–3240 / 38–4146 / 44–4650 / 49–5150 / 48–5045 / 43–4636 / 34–3726 / 23–2717 / 15–1913 / 12–14
RH %61 / 59–6360 / 59–6160 / 58–6056 / 54–6054 / 51–6052 / 48–5853 / 47–5954 / 49–6057 / 53–6060 / 57–6261 / 60–6262 / 60–63
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 21 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (33 records in those cells; 1 more cell holds records but no land by the elevation layer, so those records sit at sea and the cell is left out), with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 1088:4082 (35.575, 24.125). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 3.9 °C, 1st-percentile night 7.3 °C, 99th-percentile day 30.2 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 21 distinct grid cells holding 33 of the 35 in-range records (1 further cell with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1088:4082 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 35.50_24.375, lapse-corrected +20 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 151 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeGreece, Kriti · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker37.033, 25.192 · in the densest population, 36 records (77% of those in range)
Kew's description“tuberous geophyte” · “temperate” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 47 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 33 of them in the land cells it reads, of 35 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 6 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 23 km away. 4 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 12 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 47 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Crocus cartwrightianus, photograph 1did not loadCrocus cartwrightianus, photograph 2did not loadCrocus cartwrightianus, photograph 3did not loadCrocus cartwrightianus, photograph 4did not loadCrocus cartwrightianus, photograph 5did not loadCrocus cartwrightianus, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) helen1688, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Evgeny Stambulchik, some rights reserved (CC BY); Peter coxhead, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (3); Averater, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Pseudodictamnus acetabulosus Pseudodictamnus acetabulosus False Dittany Photo: CC BY, pavlaki1968Centaurea spinosa Centaurea spinosa Asteraceae Photo: CC BY, Cesar OrmazabalColchicum pusillum Colchicum pusillum Small Autumn Crocus Photo: CC BY, Eleftherios KatsillisCarlina graeca Carlina graeca Greek Carline Thistle Photo: CC0, author not statedGenista acanthoclada Genista acanthoclada Thorny Broom Photo: CC0, author not statedRanunculus creticus Ranunculus creticus Cretan Buttercup Photo: CC BY, Marios Thoma

Other Crocus 111 in the reference

Crocus abantensis Crocus abantensis Iridaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, AveraterCrocus adanensis Crocus adanensis Iridaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Zeynel Cebeci Crocus aerius Aerial Crocus Crocus alatavicus Crocus alatavicus Iridaceae Photo: CC BY, Oleg KosterinCrocus aleppicus Crocus aleppicus Aleppo Crocus Photo: CC BY, yelena_antipova Crocus alexandri Iridaceae Crocus ancyrensis Crocus ancyrensis Ankara Crocus Photo: CC BY-SA, Guérin NicolasCrocus angustifolius Crocus angustifolius Cloth of gold Photo: CC BY, Igor Balashov Crocus antalyensis Iridaceae Crocus asumaniae Iridaceae Crocus atticus Crocus atticus Iridaceae Photo: CC BY, Marco Zaccaria Di Fraia Crocus autranii Iridaceae all 112 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Crocus cartwrightianus var. creticus; Crocus graecus; Crocus sativus subsp. cartwrightianus; Crocus sativus var. cartwrightianus. (GBIF Backbone)

Under another author Crocus pallasii Spruner and Crocus pallasii Spruner ex Boiss. is an older name of this species, not Crocus pallasii, a species of the reference. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Iridaceae
Described by
Herb.
Native to
Greece, Kriti
Wild records
47 in range · 6 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-22
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 5 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (5 at a botanic garden or arboretum; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 35.50_24.375, lapse-corrected +20 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-22none of the photographs on this page is credited to GBIF: those shown are other sources', and GBIF's were the same photographs or were set aside by the photograph rules
Wikimedia Commons commons answeredasked 2026-10-22
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 7 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

Opening your plants…