One important aspect of our issue is to ascertain the genetic diversity of C. sativus . Saffron usually multiplies year by year by means of corms. Because corm multiplication does not induce genome variations with the exception of some mutation that in a triploid saffron population are not easily detectable, all saffron should be similar one to the other. Some authors believed that saffron was once naturalized in small areas from where it was lost as a consequence of a change in land use. C. sativus was generally assumed to be of autotriploid or hybrid origin. Now we have several data that support the alloploidy of C. sativus being the parents C. cartwrightianus and C. hadriaticus, both with 2n=16 and present currently in Greece. Other possible parents, e.g., C. thomasi, from Italy and Croatia, C. mathewii from Turkey, and C. pallasii ssp. haussknechtii from Iran-Iraq-Jordan, cannot be excluded. The complexity of the evolutionary history of the genus Crocus suggests an intensive species hybridisation and explosive speciation in Crocus evolution that could be on the basis of the origin of saffron. We now are sure that saffron is an allopolyploid but the localization of the hybridisation event has not been ascertained so far. If the event took part several times could have generated different amphiploids and, in consequence, different saffron lines. Saffron was introduced in Western Europe in different historical moments: In the Iberian Peninsula by the Arabs or even before (Romans); in Germany, Switzerland, France, Italy and Great Britain by the Crusaders, and towards the east it was extended by a variety of cultures through Transcaucasia, China, India and eventually Japan. Should we expect to find genetic diversity then?