Narcissus vs. Daffodils

Mary Sue Ittner msittner@mcn.org
Sun, 21 Mar 2004 22:59:32 PST
Dear All,

I was looking over the favorite orange flowered bulb posts to try to 
summarize something for the TOW wiki page and realized I have been wanting 
to ask this question for some time. I have noticed that the people on this 
list whose first love or at least main interest seems to be Narcissus and 
who are therefore considered by me to be the "experts", usually refer to 
these plants as Daffodils. This seems to be the preferred name in fact. I 
take it this has to do with the classification scheme which describes many 
of the different groups as daffodils. And it is the American Daffodil 
Society, not the American Narcissus Society. When I am summarizing a list I 
am using botanical names to be consistent. When I am listing something like 
Ambergate or putting a picture of something named on the wiki how is this 
written?  Can some of you explain the usage to me and when Narcissus is 
used and when Daffodil? Is this an example where gardeners are standing up 
for their right to use the name they wish?

Thanks in advance for explaining this to me.

Mary Sue


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