DUTCH GARDEN STORIES: Historic daffodils.

Narcissus /n?:r's?s?s/ is a genus of predominantly spring perennial plant life in the Amaryllidaceae (amaryllis) family. Various common labels including daffodil,[notes 1] daffadowndilly,[3] narcissus, and jonquil are being used to describe all or some known members of the genus. Narcissus has conspicuous flowers with six petal-like tepals surmounted by way of a cup- or trumpet-shaped corona. The plants are usually white or yellow (orange or pink in garden varieties), with either uniform or contrasting colored corona and tepals.

Narcissus were well known in historic civilisation, both and botanically medicinally, but formally explained by Linnaeus in his Varieties Plantarum (1753). The genus is normally thought to have about ten parts with approximately 50 species. The amount of types has mixed, depending about how they are classified, due to similarity between types and hybridization. The genus arose a while in the Late Oligocene to Early Miocene epochs, in the Iberian peninsula and adjacent areas of southwest Europe. The precise origins of the real name Narcissus is undiscovered, but it is associated with a Greek word for intoxicated (narcotic) and the myth of the young ones of that name who fell in love with his own representation. The English expression 'daffodil' appears to be derived from "asphodel", with which it was compared commonly.

The kinds are local to meadows and woods in southern Europe and North Africa with a middle of variety in the European Mediterranean, the Iberian peninsula particularly. Both cultivated and wild plants have naturalised widely, and were introduced into the Far East before the tenth century. Narcissi have a tendency to be long-lived bulbs, which propagate by division, but are also insect-pollinated. Known pests, disorders and diseases include viruses, fungi, the larvae of flies, nematodes and mites. Some Narcissus species have become extinct, while some are threatened by increasing urbanisation and tourism.

Historical accounts suggest narcissi have been cultivated from the initial times, but became ever more popular in Europe after the 16th century and by the later 19th century were an important commercial crop centred generally on holland. Today narcissi are popular as slash blossoms and since ornamental plant life in private and public gardens. The long history of breeding has led to thousands of different cultivars. For horticultural purposes, narcissi are grouped into divisions, covering an array of shapes and colours. Like other members of these family, narcissi create a number of different alkaloids, which provide some protection for the plant, but may be poisonous if ingested inadvertently. This property has been exploited for medicinal used in traditional healing and has led to the production of galantamine for the treatment of Alzheimer's dementia. Long celebrated in books and art, narcissi are associated with a number of themes in different cultures, ranging from fatality to fortune, and as icons of spring. The daffodil is the nationwide blossom of Wales and the image of cancer charities in many countries. The looks of the outrageous flowers in planting season is associated with festivals in many places.

Narcissus is a genus of perennial herbaceous bulbiferous geophytes, dying again after flowering to an underground storage bulb. They regrow in the following 12 months from brown-skinned ovoid bulbs with pronounced necks, and reach heights of 5-80 cm depending on the species. Dwarf varieties such as N. asturiensis have a maximum level of 5-8 cm, while Narcissus tazetta might grow as large as 80 cm.

The crops are scapose, having a single central leafless hollow blossom stem (scape). Several green or blue-green, slim, strap-shaped leaves happen from the light. The place stem bears a solitary blossom, but occasionally a cluster of bouquets (umbel). The bouquets, that are conspicuous and white or yellowish usually, sometimes both or seldom renewable, consist of a perianth of three parts. Closest to the stem (proximal) is a floral pipe above the ovary, then an external ring composed of six tepals (undifferentiated sepals and petals), and a central disk to conical formed corona. The blooms may hang up down (pendent), or be erect. You will find six pollen bearing stamens bordering a central style. The ovary is substandard (below the floral parts) consisting of three chambers (trilocular). The super fruit contains a dry capsule that splits (dehisces) releasing numerous black seeds.

The bulb is situated dormant after the leaves and bloom stem die back and has contractile roots that take it down further into the soil. The flower leaves and stem form in the bulb, to emerge the next season. Most types are dormant from warmer summer months to later winter, flowering in the springtime, though a few kinds are fall months flowering.

Narcissus Pictures

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