''Narcissus pseudonarcissus'' (commonly known as wild daffodil or Lent lily) (Welsh: Cennin Pedr) is a perennial flowering plant. This species has pale yellow tepals, with a darker central trumpet. The long, narrow

leaves A leaf (plural, : leaves) is any of the principal appendages of a vascular plant plant stem, stem, usually borne laterally aboveground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", wh ...

are slightly greyish green in colour and rise from the base of the stem. The plant grows from a

bulb In botany, a bulb is structurally a short stem with fleshy leaves or leaf basesBell, A.D. 1997. ''Plant form: an illustrated guide to flowering plant morphology''. Oxford University Press, Oxford, U.K. that function as food storage organs duri ...

. The flowers produce

seeds A seed is an embryonic plant enclosed in a protective outer covering, along with a food reserve. The formation of the seed is a part of the process of reproduction in seed plants, the spermatophytes, including the gymnosperm and angiosperm pl ...

, 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.)

Distribution

The species is native to Western Europe from Spain and Portugal east to Germany and north to England and Wales. It is commonly grown in gardens and populations have become established in the Balkans,

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

, New Zealand, the Caucasus,

Madeira ) , anthem = ( en, "Anthem of the Autonomous Region of Madeira") , song_type = Regional anthem , image_map=EU-Portugal_with_Madeira_circled.svg , map_alt=Location of Madeira , map_caption=Location of Madeira , subdivision_type=Sovereign st ...

, British Columbia, Ontario,

Newfoundland Newfoundland and Labrador (; french: Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador; frequently abbreviated as NL) is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region ...

, Nova Scotia, Oregon, Washington state, much of eastern United States, and the Falkland Islands. Wild plants grow in woods, grassland and on rocky ground. In Britain native populations have decreased substantially since the 19th century due to intensification of agriculture, clearance of woodland and uprooting of the bulbs for use in gardens. In Germany it was a subject of a national

awareness campaign Consciousness raising (also called awareness raising) is a form of activism popularized by United States feminists in the late 1960s. It often takes the form of a group of people attempting to focus the attention of a wider group on some cause or ...

for the protection of wildflowers in 1981. In England, the

Farndale Farndale is a valley and community in Ryedale district, North Yorkshire, England, which is known for the daffodils which flower each spring along a stretch of the River Dove. The valley is in the North York Moors National Park, some nor ...

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 Dymock Woods (, , ) is a biological Site of Special Scientific Interest in Gloucestershire, notified in 1990. The site is listed in the 'Forest of Dean Local Plan Review' as a Key Wildlife Site (KWS). The site is divided into three units o ...

. There is a Daffodil Walk Trail around several reserves in the spring.

Taxonomy

Synonyms

The history of ''N. pseudonarcissus'' has generated a large number of synonyms, including:

Subspecies

There are a number of

subspecies In biological classification, subspecies is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (morphology), but that can successfully interbreed. Not all species ...

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 An International Cultivation Registration Authority (ICRA) is an organization responsible for ensuring that the names of plant cultivars and cultivar groups are defined and not duplicated. The ICRA system was established more 50 years ago, and op ...

for daffodils. Those marked are recipients of the RHS

Award of Garden Merit The Award of Garden Merit (AGM) is a long-established annual award for plants by the British Royal Horticultural Society (RHS). It is based on assessment of the plants' performance under UK growing conditions. History The Award of Garden Merit ...

. * ssp. ''pseudonarcissus'' ''Narcissus pseudonarcissus'' subsp. ''pseudonarcissus'' - Lent lily, wild daffodil - England and Wales * ssp. ''bicolor'' (syn. ''N. bicolor'' L.) * ssp. ''calcicarpetanus'' Fernández Casas * ssp. ''eugeniae'' - Central Spain (syn. ''N. eugeniae'' Fernández Casas) * ssp. ''major'' - Spanish daffodil, great daffodil - Iberia (syn. ''N. hispanicus'' Gouan.) * ssp. ''moschatus'' (L.) Baker - swan's-neck daffodil (syn. ssp. ''candidissimus'' Desf.; syn. ''N. moschatus'' L., ''N. alpestris'' Pugsley.) * ssp. ''munozii-garmendiae'' Fernández Casas * ssp. ''nevadensis'' - Iberia (syn. ''N. nevadensis'' Pugsley) * ssp. ''nobilis'' - (syn. ''N. nobilis'' (Haw.) Schult. & Schult.f.) large flower daffodil - Iberia. The largest floral diameter of ''Narcissus'', at over 12.5 cm * ssp. ''obvallaris'' - Tenby daffodil - southern Wales (syn. ''N. obvallaris'', Salisb., sometimes considered to be derived from relict cultivation of ssp. ''major'
[1
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/nowiki> * ssp. ''pallidiflorus'' - pale flower daffodil - Spain and France * ssp. ''portensis'' - Iberia (syn. ''N. portensis'' Pugsley) * ssp. ''pugsleyanus'' Barra & López - Spain * ssp. ''radinganorum'' (syn. ''N. radinganorum'' Fernández Casas) - southeast Spain

Varieties

''Narcissus pseudonarcissus'' ssp. ''pseudonarcissus'' itself has many

varieties (described by H.W. Pugsley in an article in the ''The Garden (journal)">Journal of the Royal Horticultural Society ''The Garden'' is the monthly magazine of the British Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), circulated to all the society's members as a benefit of membership; it is also sold to the public. History ''The Garden'' magazine has gone under this title ...

'' 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.

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 Herbalism#Practitioners">herbalists such as John Gerard and John Parkinson (botanist)">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.

Emblem

The daffodil is the national flower of Wales, it is called Cennin Pedr (

Peter's Leek) in Welsh language">Welsh Welsh may refer to: Related to Wales * Welsh, referring or related to Wales * Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales * Welsh people People * Welsh (surname) * Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peop ...

. The daffodil is also the County flowers of the United Kingdom">county flower of Gloucestershire.

Health risks

Like all ''Narcissus'' species, daffodils contain the alkaloid poison lycorine, mostly in the bulb, but also in the leaves.Food and nutrition Daffodil dinner
David Trinklein, Department of Horticulture, University of Missouri, Accessed March 2008 Because of this, daffodil bulbs and leaves should never be eaten.

References

External links

''Narcissus pseudonarcissus'' - Plants For A Future database reportphoto of herbarium specimen, at Missouri Botanical Garden, ''Narcissus pseudonarcissus'', collected in Missouri
{{Authority control pseudonarcissus Garden plants Plants described in 1753 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus Flora of France Flora of Great Britain Flora of Italy Flora of Spain Flora of Switzerland Flora of Greece Flora of Romania Flora of Bulgaria Flora of Albania