So some years ago my sister came back from... somewhere... and gave me a jar of what was alleged to be saffron, bought cheap overseas. One look and I knew instantly that it was turmeric, perhaps mixed with some of the real deal to make it look a little more orange, chosen for the yellow color it would dye whatever it was put into. It sat in a jar on a top shelf for many years until the statute of limitations expired and I discarded it.
This year she came back from Bali with two smuggled food things for me. (I had hopes for, like, an entire jerkied wild boar, but no.) One was vanilla beans, a huge wad of them frozen together. Vanilla beans are certainly easy enough to definitely identify, so I had no worries about them and sorted them into packs of ten which I vacuum-sealed (hey, did you know you can make several seals in a single pouch? Roll the long end up and stuff it in the place where you normally stick the end, and odds are it will seal correctly, if not, re-roll and try again. Then you can put more in the long end, roll it up again and seal it again. I could do three seals in a single pouch). I've used them already and they're great.
The other was alleged to be saffron-- but threads, this time, not powder. I open it up. Instead of the very distinct wet-clothes smell of saffron, I got a harsh, coffee-like odor. The threads, though the right color, are also much thicker and coarser-looking. Other than color, I don't think it even looks much like saffron at all, as I know it; I'm no botanist but it looks far more like a seed or petal than a stamen.
I suppose this could be simply a different subspecies or strain. But it could just as easily be the stamen of the Balinese Death Flower for all I know. Here is real saffron (from Spain) on the left, and the mystery "saffron" from Bali on the right. Anyone feel like making a guess as to what it is, really?