[1] The specific epithet stevenii honours Christian von Steven, author of various transactions of the Imperial Society of Naturalists of Moscow published since 1838.

C. stevenii is native to the eastern Mediterranean: Cyprus, the East Aegean Islands, Lebanon, Syria, the Palestine region and Turkey.

[1] It is found in fields, meadows, woodland, rocky places along coasts, and lower and middle elevation mountains.

Colchicum species contain colchicine, a substance capable of doubling the chromosome numbers of young dividing cells thus causing genetical changes in the tissues which may be useful in agriculture.

Meadow saffrons were known to the ancients as a dangerous poison (see Colchicum brachyphyllum), and they are presently used as medicinal plants for the treatment of gout, the active agent being the colchicine they contain.