Poetaz Narcissus
Narcissus x medioluteus
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CLASSIFICATION: What’s in a name?
Scientific Name: Narcissus x medioluteus. The genus, Narcissus, comes from the Greek myth of Narcissus, a man so vain he fell in love with his own reflection. The epithet medioluteus comes from the Latin for “medium yellow”. The “x” between the genus and epithet denotes a hybrid. This plant is a hybrid between the species Narcissus poeticus and N. tazetta.3
Common Name: Poetaz Narcissus. The name “poetaz” is a combination of the epithets of the two parent species, poeticus and tazetta. Other common names include primrose-peerless, pale-flowered narcissus, twin sisters, and two-flowered narcissus
Family: Amaryllidaceae (Amaryllis family). This is a large family of herbaceous plants which often have underground bulbs. Familiar species in this family include onions, garlic, daffodils, amaryllis, and snowdrops.
IDENTIFICATION: What does it look like?
Average Height: 18-24 inches
Description: A perennial plant growing from an underground bulb, with upright, narrow, blue-green, straplike leaves all arising from the base, and large radially symmetrical flowers with six cream-colored tepals (petals) and a yellow corona which is noticeably shorter than the length of the tepals. The perianth tube (cylindrical structure at base of the flower) is long and slender, without the wide, flared end at the base of the flower which is characteristic of the familiar common daffodil (N. pseudonarcissus).1 Flowers are usually borne singly or in pairs at the end of a flowering stem.
Bloom time: Feb – Apr
Notes: This hybrid taxa is evidently scarce as an escape from cultivation in Virginia. It resembles its two parents closely, but has larger flowers than N. tazetta, which also often has more than 2 flowers per stalk. N. poeticus bears one flower per stalk and has a distinctive red margin on the corona.1
LOCATION: Where is it at home?
Range: Native of southern Europe, where both parents occur and naturally hybridize. Frequently cultivated as an ornamental both in and outside of its native range.
Geology/Soil: All species of Narcissus in Virginia can be found naturalizing in rich, loamy or sandy soils of ravines, creek banks, and floodplains.
Habitat: Rich ravine forests, bottomland forests, low fields, old homesites, ruderal ground.
CONNECTIONS: What are its relationships to other plants, animals, and humans?
Flora associations: At the Meadow Creek South trail, it can be found growing under a canopy of various oaks (Quercus spp.), tuliptree (Liriodendron tulipifera), and red maple (Acer rubrum) and alongside shrubs like blackhaw (Viburnum prunifolium) and native herbs such as wingstem (Verbesina alternifolia) and black cohosh (Actaea racemosa), as well as many other non-native species like Japanese stiltgrass (Microstegium vimineum), garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata), and its relative, common daffodil (Narcissus pseudonarcissus).
Fauna associations: Narcissus seeds have an attached nutrient-packed ‘elaiosome’–a tasty snack pack evolved to attract ants.2 These treats are especially attractive to winnow ants (genus Aphaenogaster), some of the most common ants in eastern deciduous forests. While winnow ants collect Narcissus seeds in order to eat the elaiosomes, the ants generally don’t remove them from the seeds until they reach their nest. Once there they commonly discard the elaiosome-stripped seeds in a ‘midden’, the ant colony’s nutrient-rich waste pile, and a perfect place for seed germination.5,6 This strategy of using ants for seed dispersal (formally known as myrmecochory) is also common among many of Virginia’s native spring ephemerals in our area, including spring beauty (Claytonia virginica), bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis), perfoliate bellwort (Uvularia perfoliata), and several species of violets (Viola spp.), among others.5
Human associations: Species in the genus Narcissus have long been cultivated by humans as an ornamental flower. The bulbs are easily divided and new bulbs frequently wash into streams and down ravines and drainages, dispersing them into natural habitats.
We want these plants to thrive and for everyone who gets to visit the park to enjoy them, so remember – don’t pick flowers or other parts of the plant!!
Bibliography & Definitions
1 Weakley, A.S., J.C. Ludwig, and J.F. Townsend. 2012. Flora of Virginia. Bland Crowder, ed. Foundation of the Flora of Virginia Project, Inc., Richmond. Fort Worth: Botanical Research Institute of Texas Press, , pp. 1155-1157.
2 “Seed Dispersal.” In Defense of Plants, 30 Mar. 2021, www.indefenseofplants.com/blog/tag/seed+dispersal.
3 Spaulding, Daniel, and T Barger. KEY to the WILD DAFFODILS (NARCISSUS, AMARYLLIDACEAE) of ALABAMA and ADJACENT STATES. 2014.
4 Virginia Botanical Associates. “Digital Atlas of the Virginia Flora | Search Results for Narcissus.” Vaplantatlas.org, 2024, www.vaplantatlas.org/index.php?s=narcissus&c=&do=search%3Aadvanced&search=Search. Accessed 15 May 2024.
5 Clark, R. 2022. Are seed-dispersing ants elaiosome-limited? An experimental test in a Connecticut forest dominated by myrmecochorous plants. Food Webs 32 (2022)
6 In Defense of Plants. Episode 166 – Ants as Seed Dispersers a.k.a. The Myrmecochory Episode! June 24, 2018.
Definitions:
Spring ephemeral: A perennial plant which grows early in the spring – before the trees grow leaves – to take advantage of the sunlight reaching the forest floor. In less than 2 months, the plant grows, blooms, and produces seed and then disappears from view as the leaves die back.
Myrmecochory: The formal term used for the dispersal of seeds by ants.
Tepal: Petals and/or sepals, on plants which do not have a clear distinction between the two.
Corona: The ring or crown-shaped structure forming the center of a daffodil or narcissus flower.
Perianth: The non-reproductive parts of a flower, collectively.
Radially symmetrical: Able to be divided into symmetrical halves by drawing a line any way across it.
Ruderal: Heavily disturbed by modern human activity.