Out & About …

… on the North York Moors, or wherever I happen to be.

Narcissus fluorescein

I came across this patch of daffodils on an evening walk with the dog. In the dying light, the flowers seemed magically bright. Positively glowing. On closer inspection, the petals and the corona were edged with blue. Even the capillaries in the petals had a blue tinge. Good old Google solved the mystery. Narcissus fluorescein, a cultivar of the Narcissus family which was developed in the Netherlands in the 1990s. It is indeed fluorescent, emitting light at night and is becoming popular in displays on the continent in public places. No doubt a swathe of nodding luminous daffodils would look effective in a London park but I worry that hybridisation could occur with our native variety, Narcissus pseudonarcissus. This is a real possibility, it is already happening with the bluebell, our native Common Bluebell has hybridised with the introduced Spanish Bluebell. So a dilemma for me. Should I pull the plant up?


Posted

in

by

Tags:

Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *