Industry WIKI

Shoppers Drug Mart Inc. (colloquially Shoppers; named Pharmaprix in Quebec) is a Canadian retail pharmacy chain based in Toronto, Ontario. It has more than 1,300 stores in ten provinces and two territories.

A short-rate model, in the context of interest rate derivatives, is a mathematical model that describes the future evolution of interest rates by describing the future evolution of the short rate, usually written

Silver Thursday refers to the sharp collapse in the United States silver and silver futures markets on Thursday, March 27, 1980. The crisis followed a rapid rise in silver prices and the accumulation of a large long position by members of the Hunt family, principally Nelson Bunker Hunt and William Herbert Hunt, with Lamar Hunt involved to a lesser extent. The term is used both for the tr

In finance, a single-stock future (SSF) is a type of futures contract between two parties to exchange a specified number of stocks in a company for a price agreed today (the futures price or the strike price) with delivery occurring at a specified future date, the delivery date. The contracts can be later traded on a futures exchange.

Sir Francis Baring, 1st Baronet (18 April 1740 – 11 September 1810) was a British merchant, banker and politician. A member of the Baring family, he became the first of the Baring baronets.

In finance and the stock market, slippage is the difference between the execution price expected by the trader (usually the one indicated by the trading software) and the one at which the transaction actually happens. Market impact, liquidity, and frictional costs may contribute to slippage.

The social earnings ratio, sometimes abbreviated to S/E, is a single-number metric, used to measure the social impact of various organizations. The non-financial metric is similar to the price-earnings ratio, but instead focuses on valuation against social impact, rather than projected earnings.

Social marketing is a marketing approach which focuses on influencing behavior with the primary goal of achieving the common good. It utilizes the elements of commercial marketing and applies them to social issues. However, to see social marketing as only the use of standard commercial marketing practices to achieve non-commercial goals is an oversimplified view. Social marketing has ex

Social marketing intelligence is the method of extrapolating valuable information from social network interactions and data flows that can enable companies to launch new products and services into the market at greater speed and lower cost. This is an area of research however, companies using social marketing intelligence have achieved significant improvement in marketing campaigns.

Social return on investment (SROI) is a principles-based method for measuring extra-financial value (such as environmental or social value) not otherwise reflected or involved in conventional financial accounts. The method can be used by any entity to evaluate impact on stakeholders, identify ways to improve performance, and enhance the performance of investments.

Social selling is the process of developing relationships as part of the sales process. Today this often takes place via social networks such as LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest, but can take place either online or offline. Examples of social selling techniques include sharing relevant content, interacting directly with potential buyers and customers, personal branding, and soc

Socially responsible investing (SRI) is any investment strategy which seeks to consider financial return alongside ethical, social or environmental goals. The areas of concern recognized by SRI practitioners are often linked to environmental, social and governance (ESG) topics.

Solera Holdings, LLC is an American company based in Texas which provides risk management and asset protection software and services to the automotive industry and property insurance marketplace. Solera also provides digital identity management services, as well as re-underwriting and data analytics for the automotive, property and casualty insurance industries. Solera is active in 88 co

Insurance in South Africa describes a mechanism in that country for the reduction or minimisation of loss, owing to the constant exposure of people and assets to risks (be they natural or financial or personal). The kinds of loss which arise if such risks eventuate may be either patrimonial or non-patrimonial.

Sovereign funds of China are mechanisms through which the Chinese state acts as a market participant with the goals of supporting key domestic economic sectors, advancing strategic interests internationally, and diversifying its foreign exchange reserves.

A Spahn tax is a type of currency transaction tax that is meant to be used for the purpose of controlling exchange-rate volatility. This idea was proposed by Paul Bernd Spahn in 1995.

The Special Administration of the Holy See (Italian: Amministrazione Speciale della Santa Sede, nicknamed La Speciale, abbreviated ASSS) was a dicastery of the Roman Curia from 1929 to 1967. It was established motu proprio by Pope Pius XI on 7 June 1929 to manage the ₤750 million in cash and 1,000 million in Italian government bonds transferred to the Holy See in implementation of the Fi

The terms special edition (SE) and limited edition (LE), and variants such as deluxe edition, collector's edition, expanded edition, or nth anniversary edition, are used as a marketing incentive for various kinds of products. The concept originated with published works related to the arts, such as books, prints, music, films, and video games, but now includes clothing, cars, alcohol, fas

Sports Authority, Inc. (formerly The Sports Authority) was an American sports retailer based in Englewood, Colorado. At its peak, Sports Authority operated 463 stores in 45 states and Puerto Rico. The company's website was on the GSI Commerce platform and supported the retail stores as well as other multi-channel programs. A joint venture with ÆON Co., Ltd., operates "Sports Authority" s

In finance, a spot contract, spot transaction, or simply spot, is a contract of buying or selling a commodity, security or currency for immediate settlement (payment and delivery) on the spot date, which is normally two business days after the trade date. The settlement price (or rate) is called spot price (or spot rate). A spot contract is in contrast with a forward contract or futures

In finance, a spread option is a type of option where the payoff is based on the difference in price between two underlying assets. For example, the two assets could be crude oil and heating oil; trading such an option might be of interest to oil refineries, whose profits are a function of the difference between these two prices. Spread options are generally traded over the counter, rath

The term standardized approach (or standardised approach) refers to a set of credit risk measurement techniques proposed under Basel II, which sets capital adequacy rules for banking institutions.

In the context of operational risk, the standardized approach or standardised approach is a set of operational risk measurement techniques proposed under Basel II capital adequacy rules for banking institutions.

A standee is a large self-standing display promoting a movie, product or event, or point-of-sale advertising, often in the form of a life-size cut-out figure. They are typically made of foam-board, and may range from large self-standing posters to elaborate three-dimensional display devices with moving parts and lights.

StarkWare Industries is an Israeli software company that specializes in cryptography. It develops zero-knowledge proof technology that compresses information to address the scalability problem of the blockchain, and works on the Ethereum platform.

Statistical finance is the application of econophysics to financial markets. Instead of the normative roots of finance, it uses a positivist framework. It includes exemplars from statistical physics with an emphasis on emergent or collective properties of financial markets. Empirically observed stylized facts are the starting point for this approach to understanding financial markets.

The Steamboat Inspection Service was a United States agency created in 1871 to safeguard lives and property at sea. It merged with the Bureau of Navigation in 1932 to form the Bureau of Navigation and Steamboat Inspection, which in 1936 was reorganized into the Bureau of Marine Inspection and Navigation. The Bureau of Marine Inspection and Navigation's responsibilities were transferred t

In statistics, stochastic volatility models are those in which the variance of a stochastic process is itself randomly distributed. They are used in the field of mathematical finance to evaluate derivative securities, such as options. The name derives from the models' treatment of the underlying security's volatility as a random process, governed by state variables such as the price leve

Stocks (also capital stock, or sometimes interchangeably, shares) consist of all the shares by which ownership of a corporation or company is divided. A single share of the stock means fractional ownership of the corporation in proportion to the total number of shares. This typically entitles the shareholder (stockholder) to that fraction of the company's earnings, proceeds from liquidat

A stock market bubble is a type of economic bubble taking place in stock markets when market participants drive stock prices above their value in relation to some system of stock valuation.

Stock market cycles are proposed patterns that proponents argue may exist in stock markets. Many such cycles have been proposed, such as tying stock market changes to political leadership, or fluctuations in commodity prices. Some stock market designs are universally recognized (e.g., rotations between the dominance of value investing or growth stocks). However, many academics and profe

In finance, a stock market index future is a cash-settled futures contract on the value of a particular stock market index. The turnover for the global market in exchange-traded equity index futures is notionally valued, for 2008, by the Bank for International Settlements at US$130 trillion.

Stock market prediction is the act of trying to determine the future value of a company stock or other financial instrument traded on an exchange. The successful prediction of a stock's future price could yield significant profit. The efficient market hypothesis suggests that stock prices reflect all currently available information and any price changes that are not based on newly reveal

The Great Stop of the Exchequer or Stop of the Exchequer was a repudiation of state debt that occurred in England in 1672 under the reign of Charles II of England.

In finance, a straddle strategy involves two transactions in options on the same underlying, with opposite positions. One holds long risk, the other short. As a result, it involves the purchase or sale of particular option derivatives that allow the holder to profit based on how much the price of the underlying security moves, regardless of the direction of price movement.

In finance, a strangle is an options strategy involving the purchase or sale of two options, allowing the holder to profit based on how much the price of the underlying security moves, with a neutral exposure to the direction of price movement. A strangle consists of one call and one put with the same expiry and underlying but different strike prices. Typically the call has a higher stri

Strategic communication is the purposeful use of communication by an organization to reach a specific goal. Organizations like governments, corporations, NGOs and militaries seeking to communicate a concept, process, or data to satisfy their organizational or strategic goals will use strategic communication. The modern process features advanced planning, international telecommunications

In finance, the strike price (or exercise price) of an option is a fixed price at which the owner of the option can buy (in the case of a call), or sell (in the case of a put), the underlying security or commodity. The strike price may be set by reference to the spot price, which is the market price of the underlying security or commodity on the day an option is taken out. Alternatively,

A structured product, also known as a market-linked investment, is a pre-packaged structured finance investment strategy based on a single security, a basket of securities, options, indices, commodities, debt issuance or foreign currencies, and to a lesser extent, derivatives.

The SUCRE ([ˈsukɾe]; Spanish: Sistema Unitario de Compensación Regional, "Unified System for Regional Compensation") was a regional currency proposed for commercial exchanges between members of the regional trade bloc Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas (ALBA), which was created as an alternative to the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas (FTAA). The SUCRE was intended to replace the

Sukuk (Arabic: صكوك, romanized: ṣukūk; plural of Arabic: صك, romanized: ṣakk, lit. 'legal instrument, deed, cheque') is the Arabic name for financial certificates, also commonly referred to as "sharia compliant" bonds.

Sustainability advertising is communications geared towards promoting social, economic and environmental benefits (sustainability) of products, services or actions through paid advertising in media in order to encourage responsible behavior of consumers.

Sustainability brands are brands that undertake sustainable practises in the workings of their business and champion them.

Sustainability marketing myopia is a term used in sustainability marketing referring to a distortion stemming from the overlooking of socio-environmental attributes of a sustainable product or service at the expenses of customer benefits and values. Sustainability marketing is oriented towards the whole community, its social goals and the protection of the environment. The idea of sustai

Sustainable advertising addresses the carbon footprint and other negative environmental and social impacts associated with the production and distribution of advertising materials. A growing number of companies are making a commitment to the reduction of their environmental impact associated with advertising production and distribution.

Sustainable finance is the set of practices, standards, norms, regulations and products that pursue financial objectives while taking into account environmental, social, and governance considerations. It is often used interchangeably with Environmental, Social & Governance (ESG) investing. It is important to distinguish between ESG integration for better risk-adjusted returns and the bro

Sustainable packaging refers to the design, manufacture and use of packaging with the aim of reducing environmental impacts over its life cycle while maintaining its functional and economic requirements. This involves increased use of life cycle inventory (LCI) and life cycle assessment (LCA) to help guide the use of packaging which reduces the environmental impact and ecological footpri

A synthetic CDO is a variation of a collateralized debt obligation (CDO) that generally uses credit default swaps (CDSs) and other derivatives to obtain its investment goals. As such, it is a complex derivative financial security sometimes described as a bet on the performance of other mortgage (or other) products, rather than a real mortgage security. The value and payment stream of a s

In finance, a synthetic position is a way to create the payoff of a financial instrument using other financial instruments.

Thomas Boone Pickens Jr. (May 22, 1928 – September 11, 2019) was an American business magnate and financier. Pickens chaired the hedge fund BP Capital Management. He was a well-known takeover operator and corporate raider during the 1980s. Later in life, he was a prominent conservative activist and philanthropist. At the time of Pickens' death in 2019, his net worth stood at $500 million

Tabung Harapan Malaysia (Malay for "Malaysia's Hope Fund", Abbr.: THM) is a fund launched by the returned seventh Malaysian Prime Minister of the new Pakatan Harapan (PH) government, Mahathir Mohamad on 30 May 2018. The purpose of the fund is a platform for the people to help the country and to receive the people's donations to strengthen the government's finances. The establishment of t

Tacit collusion is a collusion between competitors who do not explicitly exchange information but achieve an agreement about coordination of conduct. There are two types of tacit collusion: concerted action and conscious parallelism. In a concerted action, also known as concerted activity, competitors exchange some information without reaching any explicit agreement, while conscious para

Targeted advertising or data-driven marketing is a form of advertising, including online advertising, that is directed towards an audience with certain traits, based on the product or person the advertiser is promoting.

The tax burden is the level of effective taxation represented as the distribution of tax rates across people, households, sectors, or forms of income by the amount of their income. Tax burdens are commonly summarized as the tax revenue as a share of gross domestic product for different groups; usually as the effective tax rates paid by different income groups as a share of their income o

A tax transparent fund (TTF) - also known as an authorised contractual scheme fund - is the proposed authorised collective investment scheme structure in the United Kingdom once the UK Finance Bill 2012 becomes an act and when the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 and the Corporation Tax Act 2010 are amended, sometime mid-2012. TTFs will then have the option to be based in the UK r

Due to the absence of the tax code in Argentina, the tax regulation takes place in accordance with separate laws, which, in turn, are supplemented by provisions of normative acts adopted by the executive authorities. The powers of the executive authority include levying a tax on profits, property and added value throughout the national territory. In Argentina, the tax policy is implemen

Taxation in Estonia consists of state and local taxes. A relatively high proportion of government revenue comes from consumption taxes whilst revenue from capital taxes is one of the lowest in the European Union.

Ethiopia has a long history of taxing its population. As of 2002, reforms have changed the way the tax system works in the nation; these reforms have aimed to centralize tax authority. Currently the nation's federal government lobbies many different types of taxes on its population; these taxes include income taxes on four main schedules, property taxes, and value added taxes (VAT).

Taxes in Iceland are levied by the state and the municipalities. Property rights are strong and Iceland is one of the few countries where they are applied to fishery management. Taxpayers pay various subsidies to each other, similar to European countries that are welfare states, but the spending is less than in most European countries. Despite low tax rates in relation to European welfar

The Taylor rule is a monetary policy targeting rule. The rule was proposed in 1992 by American economist John B. Taylor for central banks to use to stabilize economic activity by appropriately setting short-term interest rates. The rule considers the federal funds rate, the price level and changes in real income. The Taylor rule computes the optimal federal funds rate based on the gap be

Technocapitalism refers to a contemporary economic and social system characterized by the dominance of technology-driven capital, where technological innovation becomes a central component of economic growth and wealth accumulation. This term encapsulates the interplay between technology and capitalism, highlighting how advancements in technology influence economic structures, labor mark

The technology life cycle (TLC) describes the commercial gain of a product through the expense of research and development phase, and the financial return during its "vital life". Some technologies, such as steel, paper or cement manufacturing, have a long lifespan (with minor variations in technology incorporated with time) while in other cases, such as electronic or pharmaceutical prod

A television advertisement (also called a commercial, spot, break, advert, or ad) is a span of television programming produced and paid for by an organization. It conveys a message promoting, and aiming to market, a product, service or idea. Advertisers and marketers may refer to television commercials as TVCs, while Japan refers to them as CMs (Commercial Messages).

Tellus App, Inc. (d.b.a. Tellus, previously known as Zilly, Inc.) is an American real estate technology and financial technology company. The company's primary product, an eponymous app, provides a property management and payment system for use in housing rentals, and offers non-FDIC-insured cash accounts targeted at general consumers.

Under the provisions of the United Kingdom Housing Act 2004 every landlord or letting agent that takes a deposit for an assured shorthold tenancy in England and Wales must protect the deposit under an authorised tenancy deposit scheme. The regulations came into effect on 6 April 2007, and were amended by the Localism Act 2011 (taking effect from 6 April 2012) and the Deregulation Act 201

A test market, in the field of business and marketing, is a geographic region or demographic group used to gauge the viability of a product or service in the mass market prior to a wide scale rollout. The criteria used to judge the acceptability of a test market region or group include:

Tezos is an open-source blockchain that can execute peer-to-peer transactions and serve as a platform for deploying smart contracts. The native cryptocurrency for the Tezos blockchain is the tez (ISO 4217: XTZ; sign: ꜩ). The Tezos network achieves consensus using proof-of-stake. Tezos uses an on-chain governance model that enables the protocol to be amended when upgrade proposals receive

TG Jones High Street Limited is a British newsagent, stationer and book retailer, founded in June 2025 as a result of WHSmith selling its 480-store high street retail and online businesses to Modella Capital. Modella charges the retailer a royalty fee to use the TGJones name.

The Children’s Place Inc. is an American retailer of clothing for children. It sells its products primarily under its proprietary brands The Children’s Place, Gymboree, Sugar & Jade, PJ Place and Crazy 8. The company has about 525 stores in the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico, and also sells via two online outlets and through five franchise partners in 15 countries. Its product line include

The Gold Standard and the Logic of Naturalism is a non-fiction book written by literary theorist and author Walter Benn Michaels and first published in 1988 by the University of California Press.

The Michaels Companies, Inc. is an American retail holding company, headquartered in Irving, Texas. It was formed as a parent company of Michaels in 2014. As of 2021, The Michaels Companies operates its flagship brand, Michaels (in the United States and Canada), and Artistree, a manufacturer of custom and specialty framing merchandise. There are over 1,252 arts and crafts stores located

The Tussauds Group was a visitor attractions company based in London, United Kingdom. Its portfolio of attractions included the Madame Tussauds waxworks, Heide Park Resort in Germany, The London Eye, Warwick Castle, Alton Towers, Thorpe Park, and Chessington World of Adventures.

In economics, the theory of fructification is a theory of the interest rate which was proposed by French economist and finance minister Anne Robert Jacques Turgot in his 1770 book Reflections on the Formation and Distribution of Wealth. The term theory of fructification is due to Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk, who considered Turgot as the first economist who tried to develop a scientific explana

Thomson Reuters Corporation ( ROY-tərz) is a Canadian multinational content-driven technology conglomerate. The company was founded in Toronto, Ontario, and maintains its headquarters in the city at 19 Duncan Street.

The threshold pledge or fund and release system is a way of making a fundraising pledge as a group of individuals, often involving charitable goals or financing the provision of a public good. An amount of money is set as the goal or threshold to reach for the specified purpose and interested individuals will pitch in, but the money at first either remains with the pledgers or is held in

Ticketing and Reservation System (TRS, 铁路客票发售和预订系统) is software used for rail ticketing in China Railways. It was developed by the China Academy of Railway Sciences. The first release was in 1996. As of December 2009, the version in use was version 5.2. It was named SMART before (excluding) version 4.0. It runs on Microsoft Windows.

A tie-in work is a work of fiction or other product based on a media property such as a film, video game, television series, board game, website, role-playing game or literary property. Tie-ins are authorized by the owners of the original property, and are a form of cross-promotion used primarily to generate additional income from that property and to promote its visibility.

The Tiger Cub Economies collectively refer to the economies of the developing countries of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam, the five dominant countries in Southeast Asia.

A retention of title clause (also called a reservation of title clause or a Romalpa clause in some jurisdictions) is a provision in a contract for the sale of goods that the title to the goods remains vested in the seller until the buyer fulfils certain obligations (usually payment of the purchase price).

Tokio Marine Holdings, Inc., is a multinational insurance holding company headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. It is the largest property/casualty insurance group in Japan in terms of revenue and is the parent company for the Tokio Marine Group which employs 39,000 people in 38 countries worldwide.

Topstep is a trader education and fintech enterprise, headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, active in more than 170 countries worldwide and founded by Michael Patak. It specializes in evaluating the performance of day traders through real-time simulated trading accounts. Originally founded as TopstepTrader, the company rebranded as Topstep in 2020 and was the first company to run a large

The Toronto Computer Leasing Inquiry was a judicial inquiry into allegations of conflict of interest, bribery and misappropriation of funds around computer leasing contracts entered into by the City of Toronto government in 1998 and 1999. It was held concurrently with the Toronto External Contracts Inquiry.

In insurance claims, a total loss or write-off is a situation where the lost value, repair cost or salvage cost of a damaged property exceeds its insured value, and simply replacing the old property with a new equivalent is more cost-effective.

In finance, a total return swap (TRS), total rate of return swap (TRORS), or cash-settled equity swap is a financial contract that transfers both the credit risk and market risk of an underlying asset.

A Totten trust (also referred to as a "Payable on Death" account) is a form of trust in the United States in which one party (the settlor or "grantor" of the trust) places money in a bank account or security with instructions that upon the settlor's death, whatever is in that account will pass to a named beneficiary. For example, a Totten trust arises when a bank account is titled in the

Toyetic is a term that describes the suitability of a media property, such as a cartoon or film, for merchandising tie-in lines of licensed toys, games, and novelties. The term is attributed to Bernard Loomis, a toy-development executive for Kenner Products, in discussing the opportunities for marketing the film Close Encounters of the Third Kind, telling its director Steven Spielberg th

A trademark (also written trade mark or trade-mark) is a type of intellectual property that consists of a word, phrase, symbol, design, or combination thereof that identifies a product or service from a particular source and distinguishes it from others. Trademarks also extend to non-traditional marks like drawings, symbols, 3D shapes like product designs or packaging, sounds, scents, or

Trademark distinctiveness is an important concept in the law governing trademarks and service marks. A trademark may be eligible for registration, or registrable, if it performs the essential trademark function, and has distinctive character. Registrability can be understood as a continuum, with "inherently distinctive" marks at one end, "generic" and "descriptive" marks with no distinct

In finance, the notion of traditional investments refers to putting money into well-known assets (such as bonds, cash, real estate, and equity shares) with the expectation of capital appreciation, dividends, and interest earnings. Traditional investments are to be contrasted with alternative investments.

The trinomial tree is a lattice-based computational model used in financial mathematics to price options on equity. It was developed by Phelim Boyle in 1986. It is an extension of the binomial options pricing model, and is conceptually similar. It can also be shown that the approach is equivalent to the explicit finite difference method for option pricing.

A turbo warrant (or callable bull/bear contract) is a kind of stock option. Specifically, it is a barrier option of the down and out type. It is similar to a vanilla contract, but with two additional features: It has a low vega, meaning that the option price is much less affected by the implied volatility of the stock market, and it is highly geared due to the possibility of knockout. Th

The Strategic Bitcoin Reserve is a proposed reserve asset, funded by the United States Department of the Treasury's forfeited bitcoin, announced by United States president Donald Trump in March 2025. The creation of the United States Digital Asset Stockpile for non-bitcoin assets was also announced. Trump has previously stated that he wants the United States to become the "crypto capita

UK Government Investments (UKGI) is a company owned by the United Kingdom government which combines the former functions of the Shareholder Executive and UK Financial Investments. UKGI manages a portfolio of businesses, including Channel Four Television Corporation and previously NatWest Group.

Unam sanctam is a papal bull that was issued by Pope Boniface VIII on 18 November 1302. It laid down dogmatic propositions on the unity of the Catholic Church, the necessity of belonging to it for eternal salvation, the position of the Pope as supreme head of the Church and the duty thence arising of submission to the Pope in order to belong to the Church and thus to attain salvation. Th

An underwriting spot, also known as sponsor credit, is an announcement made on public broadcasting outlets, especially in the United States, in exchange for funding. These spots usually mention the name of the sponsor, and can resemble traditional television advertisements in commercial broadcasting to a limited extent; however, under the terms of a public broadcaster's license from the

Unearned increment is an increase in the value of land or any property without expenditure of any kind on the part of the proprietor; it is an early statement of the notion of unearned income. It was coined by John Stuart Mill, who proposed taxing it so that it benefits every member of a society.

A unicorn bubble is a theoretical economic bubble that would occur when unicorn startup companies are overvalued by venture capitalists or investors. This can either occur during the private phase of these unicorn companies, or in an initial public offering. A unicorn company is a startup company valued at, or above, $1 billion US dollars.

In marketing, the unique selling proposition (USP), also called the unique selling point or the unique value proposition (UVP) in the business model canvas, is the marketing strategy of informing customers about how one's own brand or product is superior to its competitors (in addition to its other values).

In the United States, the debt ceiling is a law limiting the total amount of money the federal government can borrow. Since 2025, the debt ceiling is $41.1 trillion after being raised by $5 trillion through the "One Big Beautiful Bill Act" (OBBBA). The debt ceiling is expected to breach by 2027. The U.S. government has borrowed to finance its budget since 2002, running a structural budge

Saffron is a key seasoning, fragrance, dye, and medicine in use for over three millennia. One of the world's most expensive spices by weight, saffron consists of stigmas plucked from the vegetatively propagated and sterile Crocus sativus, known popularly as the saffron crocus. The resulting dried stigmas, also known as "threads", are distinguished by their bitter taste, hay-like fragranc