In the 16th century, Crocus purpureus was sent from the region of Naples to the Dutch scholar CLUSIUS, who then first stayed at the court of Maximilian II in Vienna, then in the castle of Güssing, the seat of the noble family Batthyany. The Crocus ran wild there, and can now be found in several parts of eastern Austria on damp meadows in low mountain ranges. It belongs to the big and heterogeneous group of the alpine Spring Crocuses Crocus vernus s.l.