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Deadly☠️ To avoid

🌸 Autumn crocus

Colchicum autumnale · Colchicaceae

🌳 Temperate Europe🏔️ Mountains
🧠 To remember it“No smell, no wild garlic” — before picking a lanceolate leaf from a carpet of green, crush it and smell it.
Autumn crocus — Colchicum autumnale

🔍 Identify it without mistakes

A lilac-pink flower that emerges alone in damp meadows in late summer without any leaves—the broad, shiny leaves only appear the following spring, alongside the seed capsule, making this plant deceptive year-round. This separation of leaf and flower over time causes the most fatal accidents, particularly when young spring leaves are mistaken for wild garlic.

  1. in autumn: pink-purple flower with 6 petals, no visible leaves, emerging straight from the ground
  2. in spring: broad, shiny, lanceolate leaves growing in a tuft, resembling wild garlic but WITHOUT any garlic smell
  3. green seed capsule that appears alongside the spring leaves
  4. the entire plant, including the bulb, is toxic in all seasons
Size10-40 cm when flowering (autumn), leaves 15-30 cm (spring)
FloweringAugust-October (flower alone, without leaves)
Habitatdamp meadows, mountain and lowland pastures, cool soils

⚠️ Not to be confused with

Wild garlic (young spring leaves) (Allium ursinum)none for wild garlic, but this confusion is ranked among the deadliest in France every spring

To tell them apart: CRUSH THE LEAF: wild garlic gives off a strong garlic smell, autumn crocus has no smell at all; wild garlic has a single leaf per stem coming from the ground, while autumn crocus leaves grow grouped in an odorless tuft

Saffron crocus (for the flower) (Crocus sativus)none for saffron, but a classic confusion due to lack of knowledge

To tell them apart: saffron crocus has 3 stamens and a generally smaller flower, whereas autumn crocus has 6 stamens; in practice, you should never consume any flower resembling a wild crocus in a damp meadow

☠️ What kills

nomColchicine (antimitotic alkaloid), present in the entire plant including the bulb and seeds
dose letale estimeearound 0.8 mg/kg of body weight is considered potentially fatal in adults, which equals a few grams of bulb or a handful of leaves mistaken for wild garlic (Toxinz, approx)
delai2 to 6 hours for the first digestive signs, with the most dangerous phase (multiorgan failure) often occurring after 24 to 72 hours, during a deceptive apparent improvement
symptomesintense vomiting and bloody diarrhea, followed by a false remission, then bone marrow damage, kidney and liver failure, heart rhythm disorders, and death from multiorgan failure
antidoteno specific antidote available in routine practice; management is purely symptomatic and intensive in an ICU
morts documenteesyes, repeatedly every spring in France due to confusion with wild garlic, documented by poison control centers (Vigil'Anses)

First steps : Call a poison control center immediately even if you don't have symptoms: condition worsening is delayed by several days, and the absence of initial signs is no guarantee of safety. Do not induce vomiting. Imperatively save a sample of the consumed plant (distinguishing it from wild garlic relies on smell, which is lost once cooked).

Sources (3)

No entry replaces a certain identification in the field, or medical advice. When in doubt: don't eat it. If ingestion is suspected: poison control or 112/911.