Spyros Oikonomidis

Crocus cartwrightianus is a Greek endemic geophyte, occurring in Sterea Ellas, the Peloponnese and several Aegean islands. It flowers from October till January. The botanist William Herbert named it after John Cartwright, the British consul in Constantinople in the early 19th century. Crocus cartwrightianus is a possible ancestor of the cultivated C. sativus. According to Greek mythology, Crocus was a young man, a friend of Hermes, accidentally killed by the god.

Crocus cancellatus subsp. mazziaricus is a geophyte with distribution almost in all Greece, except Crete and the islands of Northeast Aegean, the Balkans and northwest Turkey. It is the first Crocus species that flowers in autumn, with a flowering season from September to November. This species can be found from sea level up to 1500 meters in phrygana, forest edges and rocky locations.