Original article (in Serbian) was published on 19/04/2022
In the past few days, the news was published on several domestic websites suggesting that “THE MOST EXPENSIVE SPICE IN THE WORLD WAS FOUND ON FRUSKA GORA!” (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11). Although the miracle from Fruska gora (1) is mentioned in some places, it is not “newly discovered”, because the news about the discovery of saffron on that mountain was published in February 2020 on the website of the Fruska gora National Park.
As stated in the quoted announcement, “Fruska gora has been botanically well researched, and so far [February 2020] it was considered that saffron does not grow in such area, i.e., no one has found it so far. It is forest saffron (Crocus tommasinianus).
In answer to our question that a new species might have been found this year, the National Park confirmed that this is information that was published two years ago, but that “the mentioned species is growing this year as well”.
Some media that exclusively reported on the discovery pointed out the benefits of saffron, as well as the reasons why the spice obtained from it is so expensive. However, in the answer we received from the National Park, they note that it is not a plant that “brings wealth”.
Namely, there are certain differences between the plant from which the precious spice was obtained, and the one found on the western side of Fruska gora. The first and most important lies in the fact that these are two different species of the same genus Crocus, which has more than 80 species of plants from the iris family (Iridaceae).
The first species, which was actually spotted on Fruska gora, has the Latin name Crocus tommasinianus (Tomasini’s saffron). It is characterized by flowering during late winter or early spring, and if grown, it is planted in autumn.
The second species is Crocus sativus. These crocuses bloom in autumn, so they cannot be seen during spring. It is true that it is most often grown for the purpose of picking “threads”, the drying of which results in an expensive culinary spice. Each flower has three red or orange pistils, and it is estimated that 150-200 thousand flowers are needed to get one kilogram of spices. The fact that saffron is picked by hand also contributes to the high price.