Crocus

Description:

Small herbaceous plant, from Iris family (Iridaceae), growing from a corm or a bulbo-tuber. It produces three to four long and narrow leaves, with a whitish central line; and blue or white solitary cup-shaped flowers, some 10 to 15 cm tall.

Habitat:

This crocus is native to mountainous regions of France, Switzerland and Balkans. Here, observed earlier than I would expect, on a large grassland in one of our parks.

Notes:

I was a bit confused about this species, and ended up accepting it as C. vernus; or Spring crocus. However, this violet pattern, on both sides of petals, confused me from the start and make me think more of C. versicolor... But the problem is that the C. versicolor is an endemic plant, and grows only in southern parts of France, as far as I can find in literature. So finally this may even be some cultivated one, "escaped" from neighboring gardens???