Ground turmeric

Name Variations

 * powdered turmeric
 * Indian saffron
 * eastern saffron

About Ground turmeric
Wikipedia Article About Ground turmenic on Wikipedia

The domesticated saffron crocus C. sativus is a fall-flowering perennial plant unknown in the wild, and is a sterile triploid mutant of the eastern Mediterranean fall-flowering Crocus cartwrightianus. According to botanical research, C. cartwrightianus originated in Crete, not—as was once generally believed—in Central Asia. The saffron crocus resulted when C. cartwrightianus was subjected to extensive artificial selection by growers who desired elongated stigmas. Being sterile, the saffron crocus's purple flowers fail to produce viable seeds—thus, reproduction is dependent on human assistance: the corms (underground bulb-like starch-storing organs) must be manually dug up, broken apart, and replanted. A corm survives for only one season, reproducing via division into up to ten "cormlets" that eventually give rise to new plants. The corms are small brown globules up to 4.5 cm in diameter and are shrouded in a dense mat of parallel fibers.