What’s in a Plant Name? Narcissus, Daffodils, and Jonquils
Posted in Around the Garden on April 18 2017, by Katherine Wagner-Reiss
Katherine Wagner-Reiss has her certificate in botany from NYBG and has been a tour guide at the Garden for two years.
Daffodils, narcissus, and jonquils can get jumbled in the mind, but they are easily sorted out.
Daffodil is the common name for spring-flowering bulbs in the genus Narcissus, of which there are over 50 species. One species, Narcissus jonquilla has its own common name, jonquil. When in doubt, you can never go wrong by calling any of these flowers “narcissus,” since they are all in that genus.
The name daffodil is an alteration of the name for another striking flower, the asphodel. No one knows how the initial “D” came to be added to daffodil. So lovely is the asphodel that it was said to grow in the Elysian Fields: blessed fields of the afterlife in ancient Greek literature. Asphodelus alba is planted in the NYBG Perennial Garden; I will certainly be looking for its bloom this summer!
