This species has pale yellow tepals, with a darker central trumpet. The long, narrow leaves are slightly greyish green in colour and rise from the base of the stem. The plant grows from a bulb. The flowers produce seeds which, when germinated, take five to seven years to produce a flowering plant. (Sexual seed reproduction mixes the traits of both parent flowers, so if garden hybrid cultivars are planted close to wild populations of Narcissus pseudonarcissus, there is a danger that the new seedlings, having hybrid vigour, could out-compete the wild plants.)[7]
In England, the Farndale valley in the North York Moors National Park hosts a large population of the species, along the banks of the River Dove. There are several nature reserves in Gloucestershire supporting large populations of the species near Dymock Woods SSSI. There is a Daffodil Walk Trail around several reserves in the spring.[8][9] In addition, various cultivars of N. pseudonarcissus have escaped and become naturalised across the United Kingdom, and can often be found growing on roadsides, in parks,[10] along streams and in areas where bulbs have been deposited alongside other organic material removed from gardens.[11]
Taxonomy
Synonyms
The history of N. pseudonarcissus has generated a large number of synonyms,[12] including:
Synonym list
Ajax breviflosHaw.
Ajax cambricusHaw.
Ajax capaxM.Roem.
Ajax cernuusHaw.
Ajax cuneifoliusHaw.
Ajax fenestralisGray
Ajax festalis(Salisb.) Salisb.
Ajax festinusJord.
Ajax gayiHénon
Ajax hexangularis(Haw.) Herb.
Ajax lobularisHaw.
Ajax montinusJord.
Ajax multicusJ.Gay
Ajax platylobusJord.
Ajax porrigensJord.
Ajax praelongusJord.
Ajax pseudonarcissus(L.) Haw.
Ajax pygmaeusM.Roem.
Ajax radiansM.Roem.
Ajax rudbeckiiM.Roem.
Ajax sabiniamusHerb.
Ajax serratus(Haw.) Haw.
Ajax serratus var. suavisHaw.
Ajax sexangularisM.Roem.
Ajax telamoniusHaw.
Ajax telamonius var. grandiplenusHaw.
Ajax telamonius var. plenusHaw.
Ganymedes cernuusHaw.
Narcissus ajaxSweet
Narcissus andersoniiSabine ex M.Roem.
Narcissus breviflos(Haw.) Steud.
Narcissus festalisSalisb.
Narcissus gayi(Hénon) Pugsley
Narcissusgayi var. praelongus(Jord.) Pugsley
Narcissus glaucusHornem.
Narcissus horsfeldiiBurb.
Narcissus luteusBubani
Narcissus pisanusPugsley
Narcissus radiansLapeyr.
Narcissus renaudiiBavoux.
Narcissus serratusHaw.
Narcissus sylvestrisLam.
Narcissus telamonius(Haw.) Link
Oileus hexangularisHaw.
Subspecies
There are a number of subspecies of the wild daffodil but the exact number varies according to different authors. The large number of cultivars adds to the difficulty of classification. Among the subspecies is the Tenby daffodil (N. pseudonarcissus ssp. obvallaris, sometimes classed as a separate species), which probably originated in cultivation but now grows wild in southwest Wales. Many of the subspecies listed below are currently considered as species by the Royal Horticultural Society, the International Cultivar Registration Authority for daffodils.[13] Those marked agm are recipients of the RHS Award of Garden Merit.
ssp. pseudonarcissusagm[14]Narcissus pseudonarcissus subsp. pseudonarcissus – Lent lily, wild daffodil – England and Wales
ssp. bicolor (syn. N. bicolorL.)
ssp. calcicarpetanusFernández Casas
ssp. eugeniae[citation needed] – Central Spain (syn. N. eugeniaeFernández Casas)
ssp. major – Spanish daffodil, great daffodil – Iberia (syn. N. hispanicusGouan.)
ssp. moschatus(L.) Bakeragm[15] – swan's-neck daffodil (syn. ssp. candidissimusDesf.; syn. N. moschatusL., N. alpestrisPugsley.)
ssp. munozii-garmendiaeFernández Casas
ssp. nevadensis – Iberia (syn. N. nevadensisPugsley)
ssp. nobilis – (syn. N. nobilis(Haw.) Schult. & Schult.f.) large flower daffodil – Iberia. The largest floral diameter of Narcissus, at over 12.5cm[citation needed]
ssp. obvallarisagm[16] – Tenby daffodil – southern Wales (syn. N. obvallaris, Salisb., sometimes considered to be derived from relict cultivation of ssp. major[1])
ssp. pallidiflorus – pale flower daffodil – Spain and France
ssp. portensis – Iberia (syn. N. portensisPugsley)
ssp. pugsleyanusBarra & López – Spain
ssp. radinganorum[citation needed] (syn. N. radinganorumFernández Casas) – southeast Spain
Varieties
Narcissus pseudonarcissus ssp. pseudonarcissus itself has many varieties (described by H.W. Pugsley in an article in the Journal of the Royal Horticultural Society of 1933), including var. festinus, var. humilis, var. insignis, var. minoriformis, var. montinus, var. platylobus and var. porrigens. The eighth variety described by Pugsley, var. pisanus, was further defined by A. Fernandes in the Daffodil and Tulip Year Book of 1968.
Flower bud in development. Open seed pruning of a trumpeter daffodil filled with cleft seeds.
Double-flowered cultivars
Recent research in Wales, southwest England and northern France by keen horticulturists has discovered a small number of remarkably distinct, double-flowered specimens of N. pseudonarcissus growing among wild or naturalised populations of normal N. pseudonarcissus. Such rare forms were known to exist as long ago as the late 16th and early 17th century by botanists and herbalists such as John Gerard and John Parkinson, who variously described them as "Pseudonarcissus Anglicus flore pleno", "Gerrards double Daffodill" and later "The English Double Daffodil". Bulbs have been collected with the landowners' permission and it is hoped that some of these unusual cultivars may become commercially available in the future.[17]
Like all Narcissus species, daffodils contain the alkaloid poison lycorine, mostly in the bulb, but also in the leaves.[19][20] Because of this, daffodil bulbs and leaves should never be eaten.
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