Editing Crocus (section)

=== Flowers ===
The number of [[Peduncle (botany)|peduncles]] ([[flower]] [[plant stem|stems]]) vary from one to several and remain underground, emerging only at the fruiting stage, bearing flowers that are solitary or several, so that a true [[Scape (botany)|scape]] is absent. The flowers are [[pedicellate]] (attached to the peduncle by a short subterranean pedicel stalk). The pedicel is sometimes subtended (below pedicel) by a membranous, sheathing [[prophyll]] (leaf-like structure).{{sfn|Goldblatt et al|1998}}{{sfn|Zhao et al|2004}}

The showy, salver to cup-shaped, single or clustered [[actinomorphic]] flowers taper off into a narrow tube; the flowers emerge from the ground, and can be white, yellow, lilac to dark purple, or [[Variegation|variegated]] in [[cultivar]]s. The flower tube is long, cylindrical and slender, expanding apically. The [[floral tube]] is long and narrow with 6 lobes in 2 [[Whorl (botany)|whorls]]. The [[perianth]] is 3+3 (3 sepals+3petals) and [[gamophyllous]] (with fused segments). The [[tepal]] whorls are similar, equal or subequal with a smaller inner whorl, and cupped to outspread. The bracts are membranous, but the inner ones are sometimes lacking.{{sfn|Goldblatt et al|1998}}{{sfn|Zhao et al|2004}}{{sfn|Mabberley|1997}}

The 3 [[stamen]]s are erect and linear and inserted in the throat of the perianth tube, with anthers shorter than the filaments. [[Pollen]] grains are inaperturate (apertures absent) but sometimes spiraperturate (spiral shaped).{{sfn|Goldblatt et al|1998|p=307}} Each flower has a single [[Stigma (botany)|style]] which is [[exserted]] (projecting beyond the [[Corolla (flower)|corolla]] tube) and slender distally with three to many branches. The branches are highly variable, being short or long, and simple, bifurcate (dividing in two) or multifid and sometimes distally flattened. The inferior [[Ovary (botany)|ovary]] has 3 carpels with [[axile placentation]]. It remains underground, and as the [[seed]]s ripen, the [[Pedicel (botany)|pedicel]] (stem of the flower) grows longer so the [[fruit]] is above the soil surface.{{sfn|Goldblatt et al|1998}}{{sfn|Zhao et al|2004}}{{sfn|Ali|Mathew|2011}}