Full Length Research Paper

Stigma variability in saffron (Crocus sativus L.)

Seyed Mahmood Ghaffari¹* and Abdolreza Bagheri²

¹Institue of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Uninersity of Tehran, P. O. Box 13145-1384, Tehran, Iran.

²Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, College of Agriculture, Mashhad, Iran.

*Corresponding author. E-mail: ghaffari@ibb.ut.ac.ir. Tel: +98-21-66498819. Fax: +98-21-66404680.

Accepted 11 July, 2008

The obstacle to improving Crocus sativus is its sterility caused by being triploid. Thus, the discovery of the new variant of saffron with increased number of stigmas was welcomed as a reason for improving its yield. The study of development and the process of budding of the corm of saffron showed that these flowers occur by fusion of two or more flowering buds on one corm. Cytological and morphological studies showed that this characteristic is unstable and is not genetically controlled.

Key words: Chromosome count, Crocus sativus, saffron, stigma, triploid.