Narcissus (plant)

• 1. Introduction

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  Narcissus, the genus behind the daffodil, includes a single cultivar called Carlton that has been grown as more than 9 billion bulbs. That adds up to about 350,000 tons, which makes it one of the most numerous individual plants produced anywhere. Carlton arrived in 1927, and it is only one of thousands of cultivars bred from a few wild flowers of the Mediterranean. Yet botanists cannot agree whether the genus holds 16 species or nearly 160. Its name may have nothing to do with the Greek youth who fell in love with his own reflection. And every bulb carries a poison that has sickened people who mistook it for an onion. The chapters ahead follow these plants from their birthplace in southwest Europe to the fields, gardens and laboratories where they are worked today.

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• 2. Anatomy And Pollinators

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  Up to 60 layers have been counted in the bulbs of some wild narcissi, each pushed outward as new growth forms inside. The oldest layers turn brown and dry into a skin called the tunic. Each branched bulb unit lives for about four years. Through the summer the bulb sits dormant, yet next spring's flower stem is already forming inside it, wrapped in two to three leaf sheaths. Contractile roots slowly pull the whole bulb deeper into the soil.

  The plants vary enormously in height. The dwarf Narcissus asturiensis tops out at 5-8 cm, while Narcissus tazetta can climb to 80 cm. Each plant sends up one hollow, leafless stem, called a scape, that carries anywhere from 1 to 20 blooms. Before opening, the buds are wrapped in a thin papery spathe that splits as the bud swells. After flowering, the leaves turn yellow and die back once the seed capsule ripens.

  The flower has six tepals, which are petals and sepals that look alike, set around a central cup or trumpet called the corona. Flower diameter runs from 12 mm in Narcissus bulbocodium to over 125 mm in the large Narcissus nobilis. Only Narcissus cavanillesii has almost no corona at all. Most species bloom in late winter or spring, but five flower in autumn. Individual blooms last between 5 and 20 days.

  In 2005 Barrett and Harder described three floral patterns, and each one matches a different visitor. The daffodil form has a short, broad tube and a large trumpet. Bees such as Bombus, Anthophora and Andrena crawl right inside. The stigma sits at the mouth of the corona, so a bee brushes it before touching the anthers, which encourages cross-pollination.

  The paperwhite form has a long, narrow tube and a short, flaring corona. Only a slender proboscis fits down the tube, so hawkmoths such as Macroglossum and butterflies of the families Pieridae and Nymphalidae do the work. The corona acts as a funnel that guides the tip of the proboscis to the opening.

  The triandrus form appears in only two species, Narcissus triandrus and the Moroccan endemic Narcissus albimarginatus. Long-tongued solitary bees crawl into the large corona, then meet a narrow tube that forces them to probe deeply for nectar. The hanging flowers keep butterflies and moths away. One more species breaks the pattern entirely. The green-flowered Narcissus viridiflorus blooms at night and relies on crepuscular moths.

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• 3. Names And Myths

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  Plutarch connected the Greek name narkissos with narke, a word meaning numbness, because of the plant's narcotic properties. Pliny the Elder offered a different reading. He tied the name to the flower's fragrance, from a verb meaning to grow numb, rather than to any person. The scholar Beekes goes further and considers the word Pre-Greek in origin. Narcissus poeticus, which grows in Greece, has a scent that has been described as intoxicating.

  The famous myth tells of a youth named Narcissus who became so obsessed with his reflection in water that he drowned, and the flower sprang up where he died. There is no evidence that the flower was named after him. Accounts of narcissi growing in the wild exist from long before the story appeared. Some suggest the myth was inspired by narcissi bending over streams, which resemble a youth admiring his reflection. The name Narcissus was also not uncommon for men in Roman times.

  The English word daffodil comes from affodell, a variant of asphodel, the plant with which narcissi were so often confused. Nobody knows why the initial d was added. From at least the 16th century, daffadown dilly and daffydowndilly appear as alternative names, and another is Lent lily.

  Even the plural causes arguments. Dictionaries list narcissi, narcissuses and narcissus, but the usage guides of Garner and Fowler prefer narcissi.

  In Hokkien the plant is called chúi-sian, which means water fairy, and it is the official provincial flower of Fujian. Today the daffodil is also the national flower of Wales and the symbol of cancer charities in many countries, a link that echoes a far older medical history.

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• 4. Counting The Species

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  In 1753 Linnaeus formally described the genus in his Species Plantarum and recognised just six species. By 1784 the list had grown to fourteen, and by 1819 to sixteen. Then in 1831 Adrian Haworth described 150. The swing came from how narrowly each author drew the line around a species, and from a flood of garden varieties that muddied the picture.

  Some botanists, such as Haworth and Salisbury, took a narrow view of the genus and treated many species as separate genera. Others, such as Herbert and Spach, took a wide view. Baker published a major monograph in 1875, and by then the wide view was winning. One old Latin remark describes the genus as very complex and burdened with numerous uncertainties.

  The twentieth century did not settle matters. Fernandes accepted 22 species in 1951, but by 1968 he had 63. Webb counted 27 in 1980. Blanchard listed 65 in 1990, and Erhardt listed 66 in 1993. The Royal Horticultural Society's International Daffodil Register listed 87 species in 2006. Then a genetic study by Zonneveld in 2008 found only 36.

  Current lists still disagree. The World Checklist of Selected Plant Families accepts 52 species and at least 60 hybrids, while the Royal Horticultural Society had 81 accepted names in October 2014. Plants of the World Online now accepts 76 species and 93 named hybrids.

  Hybrids are a big part of the problem. An ancient hybrid grows over a large area and is now treated as a species in its own right. A recent hybrid is a solitary plant found among its parents, with a restricted range.

  The Royal Horticultural Society lists ten sections. Three contain only one species and two contain only two, while most species fall into section Pseudonarcissus. Several sections roughly match popular names such as Trumpet Daffodils, Pheasant's Eyes, Hoop Petticoats and Jonquils. Even the genus's place in the amaryllis family only became settled in this century, once phylogenetic analysis arrived.

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• 5. Mediterranean Origins

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  Between roughly 29.3 and 18.1 million years ago, Narcissus split from Sternbergia, a Eurasian relative. That was in the Late Oligocene to Early Miocene. The genus appears to have arisen in the Iberian peninsula, southern France and northwestern Italy. Its two subgenera divided between 27.4 and 16.1 million years ago, and subgenus Hermione arose in the southwestern Mediterranean and Northwest Africa.

  Spain and Portugal remain the centre of diversity today. A few species extend into southern France, Italy and the Balkans, and Narcissus tazetta reaches as far east as Iran and Kashmir. Because that species is one of the oldest in cultivation, it was probably introduced there. Narcissi were brought to the Far East before the tenth century.

  Section Pseudonarcissus, though now naturalised widely, is native only to the Baetic Ranges of the southeastern Iberian Peninsula. Wild Narcissus pseudonarcissus in Great Britain and northern Europe counts as an ancient introduction. Wild stocks still survive in southern Scotland. In Germany, the meadows around Monschau teem with yellow blooms each spring, and the flower also grows in the Eifel National Park. Luxembourg has a single occurrence, near Lellingen in the municipality of Kiischpelt.

  Most species have tiny endemic ranges, and where they overlap, natural hybrids appear. Around the Portuguese city of Porto, Narcissus pseudonarcissus and Narcissus triandrus cross freely. Along part of the Mondego river, Narcissus scaberulus crosses with Narcissus triandrus. Native habitats run from low marshes to rocky hillsides and montane pastures, with a general preference for acidic soils.

  Conservation has become urgent. Many of the smallest species have become extinct, and the remaining wild ones face over-collection, urban development and tourism. The IUCN Red List describes five species as Endangered, among them Narcissus alcaracensis, Narcissus bujei and Narcissus nevadensis. In 1999 only three species were considered endangered, with five vulnerable and six rare. Protected meadows now exist, such as the Negraşi Daffodil Meadow in Romania and Kempley Daffodil Meadow in the UK, and both host spring festivals.

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• 6. Garden Favourite

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  In 1588 Joachim Camerarius the Younger published his Hortus Medicus, the first catalogue of a German garden's plants, and reported nine kinds of daffodil in his garden at Nuremberg. After his death in 1598 his plants moved with Basilius Besler to Willibaldsburg, the bishop's palace at Eichstätt in Upper Bavaria. By the time Besler published his Hortus Eystettensis in 1613, the garden held 43 different types.

  England was just as keen. In 1597 Gerard described twenty-four species in London gardens and wrote, "we have them all and every one of them in our London gardens, in great abundance". In 1629 Parkinson described a hundred varieties in his Paradisus Terrestris. He also introduced the great double yellow Spanish daffodil, of which he wrote, "I thinke none ever had this kind before myselfe". Shakespeare's daffodil, by contrast, was the wild Narcissus pseudonarcissus.

  The bulb trade was already busy in the 16th century. Large numbers of bulbs were dug from the wild and imported into the Netherlands, and Narcissus hispanicus soon became nearly extinct in its native France and Spain. The only large-scale production at that time centred on the double narcissus Van Sion and on cultivars of Narcissus tazetta imported in 1557. Istanbul became an important shipping point for bulbs headed to western Europe. By 1739 a Dutch nursery catalogue listed 50 varieties.

  Tastes differed from country to country. In 1757 Hill wrote that the garden does not afford a prettier plant than this one. Yet Maddock left narcissi off his 1792 list of the eight most important cultivated flowering plants in England. In the Netherlands, van Kampen ranked Narcissus tazetta fifth in 1760. Lauremberg's Latin dictum, Magna cura non indigent Narcissi, held that most narcissi need little care, and it was much cited.

  The real boom came in the nineteenth century. It began in England between 1835 and 1855 and reached the Netherlands toward the end of the century. Early in the twentieth century, 50 million Paperwhite bulbs were shipped from the Netherlands to the United States every year. The tetraploid King Alfred appeared in 1899, and the Royal Horticultural Society held its first Daffodil Conference in 1884. The Daffodil Society was founded in Birmingham in 1898. The American Daffodil Society followed in 1954 and publishes The Daffodil Journal each quarter.

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• 7. Bulbs For Market

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  Of the 16,700 hectares under flower bulbs in the Netherlands, narcissi cover about 1,800. In the 1990s, narcissus production stood at 260 million bulbs, sixth behind tulips, gladioli, irises, crocuses and lilies. By 2012 it ranked third. In the 2009-2010 season, 470 cultivars were grown on 1578 hectares, and about two-thirds of that area went to roughly 20 popular varieties.

  One cultivar towers over the rest. The miniature Tête-à-Tête covers 663 hectares in the Netherlands, far ahead of Carlton with 54, Bridal Crown with 51, Dutch Master with 47, Jetfire with 42 and Ice Follies with 36. Ice Follies dates from 1953. Elsewhere, Israel exported 25 million Narcissus tazetta bulbs in 2003. In the United Kingdom, 3800 of the 4100 hectares planted with bulbs were narcissi, and the farm gate value was estimated at 10 million pounds in 2007.

  Growing them takes careful handling. Before planting, bulbs are immersed in hot water at 44.4 degrees Celsius for three hours. After the summer harvest they are sorted, stored for 2-3 weeks and given a second bath at 43.5 degrees. This eliminates the narcissus fly and nematodes. The bulbs are then dried and stored at 15.5 degrees. The harsher Dutch winters require covering the fields with straw.

  The threats are real. The narcissus bulb fly Merodon equestris lays its eggs in the ground at the end of June, and one female can lay up to fifty. The hatching larvae tunnel to the bulbs and eat their interiors. They then overwinter in the empty shell, pupate in April and emerge as adults in May. The fungus Fusarium oxysporum causes basal rot, the most serious disease of the genus, and it can stay in the soil for years. Growers must remove infected plants at once and avoid replanting there for five years. Up to twenty-five viruses can infect narcissi.

  Breeders chase different goals. Commercial growers want varieties with stems at least 30 cm long, and florists want blooms that open only when they reach the shop. A single bulb cut by twin-scaling can yield 25-35 new plants after four years. Poetaz varieties, which carry several heads, are mainly hybrids of Narcissus poeticus and Narcissus tazetta.

  For order, the Royal Horticultural Society registers every cultivar. Following Kington's 1998 scheme, cultivars fall into 13 divisions, and more than 27,000 names had been registered by 2008. Each name carries a division number and a colour code for the outer tepals and the corona. Thalia is coded 5 W-W, and Geranium, a Tazetta, is coded 8 W-O. Over 140 varieties have won the Society's Award of Garden Merit.

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• 8. Poison And Medicine

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  In 1877 lycorine became the first alkaloid identified in the genus, extracted from Narcissus pseudonarcissus. Nearly 100 alkaloids have since been found in Narcissus, about a third of all known Amaryllidaceae alkaloids. All species contain lycorine, mostly in the bulb but also in the leaves. The plant uses these chemicals as protection.

  The effects on people are serious. Eating Narcissus pseudonarcissus or Narcissus jonquilla brings salivation, acute abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. Trembling, convulsions and paralysis can follow, and a large dose may kill. Many poisonings have happened when bulbs were mistaken for leeks or onions and cooked. Most people recover within hours, and the strong unpleasant taste makes large accidental doses unusual.

  The poison is distributed cleverly. In Narcissus papyraceus the stem holds five times more alkaloid than the bulb, which protects it from herbivores that would eat the stem. The bulbs can also stunt nearby roses, rice and cabbages. Cut narcissi placed in a vase shorten the life of the other flowers around them. Pickers, florists and gardeners can develop a skin complaint called daffodil itch, with dry, scaly, cracked skin on the hands.

  Despite the danger, healers have used these plants for centuries. Around 460-370 BC, Hippocrates recommended a pessary of narcissus oil for uterine tumors. Dioscorides and Soranus of Ephesus continued the practice, and Pliny the Elder advocated topical use. Bulbs of Narcissus poeticus contain narciclasine, about 0.12 g per kg of fresh bulbs, and it is likely the traditional cancer treatments worked through compounds of this kind. In the eighteenth century, the Irish herbal of John K'Eogh advised pounding the roots in honey for burns, bruises, dislocations and freckles. Sophocles called the narcissus the "Chaplet of the infernal Gods", a line often wrongly credited to Socrates.

  Of all the alkaloids, only galantamine has reached the clinic. It blocks the enzyme acetylcholine esterase, crosses the blood brain barrier, and is used as a drug for Alzheimer's disease. The daffodils grown to supply it stand in fields near Brecon in Powys, Wales.

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