I planted 40 bulbs of saffron in the garden. Singularly, this flower is planted in summer and it blooms in winter.
The photo is of the beginning of flowering. 2 or 3 flowers came out from 1 bulb.
Both flowers and leaves are similar to these of tulip.
The red one is pistil. One flower has three pistils. (The stamen is yellow.) I gathered these pistils.
This is dried pistils. I didn’t measure the weight, but it seems to be adequate quantity. Its retail price might be 10,000 JPY. This is an indispensable material to cook saffron rice or paella. It’s a wonder that the yellow-colored rice is made by this red pistil. I’ll update when I cook saffron rice!