Narcissus L.
Clump-forming perennials; bulb tunicate. Leaves all basal, linear to lorate. Scapes hollow. Flowers solitary to several, white, yellow, or rarely green, erect or drooping, umbellate; perianth-lobes ascending, reflexed or spreading, connate below; tube narrow-cylindric to trumpet-shaped with tubular trumpet-like or cup-shaped corona at throat, sometimes reduced to a rim; spathe 1-valved. Stamens equal or unequal, attached to perianth-tube at two levels, included or exserted from tube but not extending beyond corona. Capsule ovoid to globular with 3 rounded angles, loculicidal. Seeds many, subglobose, angled, black. Spp. c. 60, of Europe and W. Asia. Adventive spp. 5.
Key
Many cultivars are grown in N.Z., some have already been found as garden outcasts in grass along roadsides and no doubt others will be recorded from time to time. The key covers the species groups to which the known garden outcasts belong and the descriptions outline the characteristics of the principal species of each group. The nomenclature of Fernandes, R.H.S. Daffodil and Tulip Year Book 1968, 1968, 37-66, is followed.
N. bulbocodium L., (hoop petticoat daffodil) has been once collected at Pomare, Hutt Valley, in a roadside ditch - A.P. Druce, Oct. 1971 (CHR 222601); it has solitary bright yellow flowers with corona = perianth-lobes (as in N. pseudonarcissus), but may be distinguished from other narcissi growing wild in N.Z. by the narrow-lanceolate perianth-lobes.
N. × odorus L. (N. hispanicus × jonquilla) has been once collected at Wallaceville, Hutt Valley, in roadside grass along a drain- A.J. Healy. 53/885, 21.9.1953 (CHR 84324); it resembles N. × medioluteus but has a 6-lobed corona.
