About how many crocus flowers must be hand-picked to produce 1 kg of saffron, the world's most expensive spice?

Answer

165,000 flowers

Each flower yields just three tiny red stigmas that must be plucked by hand before the blooms wilt — a harvest so labor-intensive that saffron is nicknamed 'red gold' and sells for thousands of dollars per kilogram.

Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica (75,000 blossoms per pound)