Wednesday, May 02, 2007

Wayside pheasant's-eye daffodils (Narcissus poeticus)


One of my spring highlights is the appearance of these pheasant's-eye narcissus flowers beside one of the lanes through my Whatlington grid square. I remember when there was only one flower and now there are twelve, but I always worry that someone might dig the whole lot up. Judging by the white 'petals' this is Narcissus poeticus var. recurvus.

This species is a garden escape, but has been here long enough to be regarded as naturalised and certainly seems to do well in an otherwise ordinary hedge-bottom. It is one of the latest daffodils to flower and does not really get going here until early May. Another bonus is that it has a delicious scent.