Jim Waddick wrote, >Are there any crocus that develop flowering stems on the outside of >the corm direct from the basal plate? Do all crocus develop their >flowers from the center of the corm? Confused. Some crocuses that form large corms produce several flowers here and there around the corm. You can see this easily if you wait too long to plant them! The stem, of course, is not present above ground at anthesis (flowering) but it elongates while the seed is ripening (the ovary is usually below the soil surface too. When the seed is ripe, in some species the stem suddenly elongates and pops up the capsule. This must be to prevent it being eaten while unripe. I think ants usually carry the seeds away once they dehisce. There is quite a bit of the crocus plant that most gardeners never notice, including all the various types of leaves that have technical names such as "prophyll" and "cataphyll." The whole structure is really pretty complicated, as the drawings in Mathew's book show. Jane McGary