Narcissus and Daffodil

38 B. Mathew
1c. Section Ganymedes Salisbury ex Schultes and Schultes fil.
Description: Leaves narrow, flat or ± cylindrical, usually dark green and slightly
glaucous. Flowers vernal, one to about six in an umbel; perianth tube funnel-form;
segments sharply reflexed; corona campanulate or obconical, about as wide as
deep. Filaments of differing lengths, the lower three shorter than the anthers and
with the anthers included, the upper three much longer than the anthers and the
anthers exserted.
Type species: N. triandrus L.
Note: A very distinctive group, known as the Angel’s Tears daffodils. They
have pendent flowers with sharply reflexed perianth segments; it is the three
prominent upper stamens that have given rise to the epithet triandrus. The
taxa in this group have been treated as separate species by some authors, or at
various infraspecific levels within N. triandrus by others. The latter view is
accepted here, but it must be pointed out that even these taxa are not well
defined.
N. triandrus L.
var. triandrus. Flowers white or with a yellowish tinge on petals; leaves
4–5 mm wide. Northern Spain.
var. cernuus (Salisbury) Baker. Flowers creamy-white or very pale yellow;
leaves very narrow, about 2 mm wide. Widespread in Spain and Portugal.
var. concolor (Haworth) Baker [syn. N. triandrus ssp. pallidulus (Graells)
Webb]. Flowers bright yellow. Portugal, central, southern and eastern
Spain.
var. loiseleurii (Rouy) Fernandes [syn. N. triandrus ssp. capax (Salisb.) Webb].
Similar to var. triandrus with white flowers; grows in sand by the sea on the
Isles de Glenán, western France.
Notes: The most frequently cultivated variant of this popular Narcissus has flowers
of a cream colour and is known as ‘N. triandrus albus’; it is of unknown origin and
should probably be regarded as belonging to var. cernuus.
N. lusitanicus Casas Dorda and Casas from central Portugal may belong here
with N. triandrus, since it is described as having affinities with N. pallidulus, which is
regarded by Webb (1980) as a synonym of var. concolor; it is said to have intensely
yellow flowers.
1d. Section Jonquillae De Candolle
Description: Leaves narrow, dark green, cylindrical or subcylindrical. Flowers
vernal or rarely autumnal, one to several in an umbel, very fragrant; perianth
tube cylindrical, slightly widened towards the apex; segments spreading or
slightly reflexed; corona a shallow cup, wider than deep. Filaments shorter
than anthers; anthers dorsifixed, included within the corona or slightly
exserted.
Type species: N. jonquilla L.
Three subsections of section Jonquillae are recognised, Jonquillae, Apodanthi and
Chloranthi.