Flora Unveiled

160 i Flora Unveiled

group of little flowers with maroon tops,” which “could be taken as schematic crocuses.”^44
Recall that crocus stigmas are an intense maroon color (Figure 6.8B), which is the same
color as the figure.
Another feature of the putative crocus corm provides a potential clue to her identity.
Unlike the surrounding figures, the partially sunken central figure has a series of small
bumps on its outer surface. Interpreted as snakes by Burkert, these enigmatic bulges have
long baffled observers. We propose that their significance lies in their functional equiva-
lence to the dots (“seeds”) inside the two attending dancers. Just as seeds function as the
reproductive units of fruits, the external bumps on the corm- like figure may represent
cormlets, which are involved in the asexual propagation of crocus corms. Dividing crocus
corms into cormlets, a practice that may have been invented in Crete, would have been
familiar to Minoans but probably not to the archaeologists and historians who have stud-
ied them. To begin to understand the mindset of the Minoans, we need to look at the
different stages of saffron crocus cultivation, which typically follows a three- to five- year
planting cycle.

The Saffron Crocus Planting Cycle

As discussed earlier, the Minoans were likely growing a domesticated variety of the
wild crocus, C.  cartwrightianus, which produces fertile seed. However, propagation
by corms has several advantages over seed propagation. Crocuses grown from corms
grow faster and f lower sooner than seed- grown plants:  seed- grown plants f lower in
three years, whereas corm- grown plants f lower in the first year. Propagation by seed
would also require setting aside a portion of the f lower crop for seed production.
Finally, vegetative propagation by corms minimizes genetic variability and ensures a
uniform crop.
Flowering occurs in the fall (October– November) during the rainy season. The
cooler temperatures associated with autumn also promote f lower emergence.^45 The
f lowering period is brief, lasting only two to three weeks, after which the plant contin-
ues to produce leaves and roots. Throughout the fall and winter growing season, the
sugars produced by the leaves are translocated to the “mother corm” and stored there
in the form of starch. Some of the sugars are also used for the production of branch
shoots, which sprout from numerous buds on the surface of the corm (Figure 6.15A).
Note that during the first year of growth, the branch shoots only grow vegetatively,
producing only leaves.
The branch shoots develop swollen bases, which turn into “cormlets” (Figure 6.15B,C).
Each “mother corm” produces as many as ten branch shoots with basal cormlets.
The first growing season ends with the onset of the dry season in the early spring
(April– May). The leaves wither and die, and the mother corm and cormlets become
“dormant.” This is not a true dormancy, however, because the cells in the apical
meristems (growing tips) of the corm and cormlets continue to divide, although the
structures they produce fail to enlarge. This is the most critical stage in the process,
for during the hot summer months when the “dormant” cormlets remain in the
ground, they undergo the transition from the vegetative to the reproductive stage of