Narcissus and Daffodil

Classification of Narcissus 35
var. hellenicus (Pugsley) Fernandes. Corona shallow cup-shaped; petals
reflexed; flowers small, about 4.5 cm diameter. Greece.
var. majalis (Curtis) Fernades. Corona shallow cup-shaped, white-zoned below
the red edge; flowers up to 7 cm diameter. France.
var. recurvus (Haworth) Fernandes. Corona shallow cup-shaped, green-yellow
edged red; petals reflexed; flowers up to 7 cm diameter. Switzerland.
var. verbanensis Herbert. Corona shallow cup-shaped; petals very pointed at
apex; flowers small, about 3.5–5 cm diameter. Italy.
N. radiiflorus Salisbury. Petals not overlapping at the base, the flower more
‘starry’ in appearance; stamens nearly equal.
var. radiiflorus. Corona shallow cup-shaped, less than 1 cm across. Switzerland,
Austria, northern Balkan Peninsula.
var. stellaris (Haworth) Fernandes. Corona shallow cup-shaped and about
1 cm across. Central and eastern Europe.
var. exertus (Haworth) Fernandes. Corona flattish and disk-like, yellow or
yellowish-green with a red or orange edge. Switzerland, southern France.
var. poetarum Burbidge and Baker. Corona flattish, wholly red. Of unrecorded
origin.
1b. Section Pseudonarcissus DC. [subgenus Ajax Spach]
Description: Leaves usually grey-green, flat. Flowers vernal, usually solitary, rarely
up to four, wholly yellow, wholly white or bicoloured; perianth tube broadly conical;
segments usually spreading, rarely suberect or much reflexed; corona cylindrical,
often widened at the mouth, much longer than wide. Filaments straight, subequal
to or much longer than the anthers; anthers ± basifixed or rarely dorsifixed,
exserted from the perianth tube, included within the corona.
Type species: N. pseudonarcissus L.
Note: These are the true daffodils in which the corona is in the form of a long more
or less cylindrical trumpet rather than a cup, saucer or funnel. They tend to flower
in mid spring, after the early Hoop Petticoats and Angel’s Tears but before the
N. poeticus forms. Numerous taxa have been described in this section and these
have been accorded various taxonomic ranks, many of them as variants of
N. pseudonarcissus. An added complication to the taxonomy is that they have been
cultivated for centuries and many plants of unrecorded origin have also been
described as species. A very thorough revision of the group is required. They are
listed below in two groups, the very small ones such as N. asturiensis and N. nanus
and the larger-flowered including N. pseudonarcissus and its relatives.
Group A. Plants small, usually less than 15 cm; flowers to 3.5 cm diameter
N. asturiensis ( Jordan) Pugsley. Plant to 10 cm in height. Leaves grey-green. Flowers
yellow; corona constricted in the middle. Northern Portugal, north-central and
north-west Spain, on acidic soils. Var. villarvildensis Diaz and Prieto is a slight variant
from central-northern Spain, as is var. brevicoronatus Pugsley which has a shorter
corona.