Side by side
Compare plates
Lay two plants next to each other — uses, risks, and whether either has a grow guide.
LegalCaution
Saffron
Crocus sativus
Three red threads from a sterile autumn crocus — the dearest spice on earth, and a traditional mood-and-digestion pinch.
Flavor
Honey, hay, and a faint metallic bitterness. A pinch perfumes a pot; a teaspoon is a dye vat.
Symptoms
low mood, indigestion, anxiety
In favor
A true kitchen spice
Against
Expensive because it is labor
Days to harvest
60–90 days from a late-summer planting to first threads
LegalDeadly
Autumn crocus
Colchicum autumnale
Naked ladies — a lilac autumn flower without leaves, deadly, and the saffron lookalike this folio exists to name.
Flavor
Do not taste. Bitter colchicine.
In favor
Teaches the saffron lookalike
Against
Fatal at garden doses
Days to harvest
Bloom from a planted corm in autumn — never as a crop