Autumn crocus

Description:

Autumn crocus, also known as Meadow saffron and Naked ladies, is a late flowering plant belonging to Colchicaceae family. It resembles crocuses, but in reality the two plants are not related at all. The autumn crocus develops its flowers alone, after the vegetative organs have already died - there are no leaves visible around flowers. At this stage, flowers are 5 to 15 cm tall, sporting six rose tepals, six stamens with orange anthers and three white styles. Flower develops on a tubelike stem, and the ovary is underground - it will develop into a seed that will hibernate.

Habitat:

Seen on forest floor in mixed forest, on hills in a valley situated between Jura mountain range and Geneva lake.

Notes:

This is another poisonous plant in my collection (no, I'm not doing it on purpose...), and apparently deadly. It contains alkaloids, and among them, the colchicine, the most dangerous deadly one. However, in spite of its toxicity, it is used in genetics - it prevents the cell division but not the chromosome division and thus creates polyploids, or organisms with doubled (or more) number of chromosomes. Moreover, the colchicine is also used in gout treatment, as well in some other fever linked diseases.