“In some parts of the country any
yellow daffodil is called a jonquil, usually incorrectly. As a rule, but not
always, jonquil species and hybrids are characterized by several yellow
flowers, strong scent, and rounded foliage. The hybrids are confined to
Division 7 and the term "jonquil" should be applied only to daffodils
in Division 7 or species in Division 13 known to belong to the jonquil group.”
Source: American daffodil society
The
name Narcissus comes from the Greek myth.
It seems that Narcissus was a very handsome and vain hunter. Echo, a
nymph, fell hopelessly in love with him.
He wasn’t interested, however, and instead looked into a pond where he
fell in love with his own reflection.
Eventually he died and in his place was a beautiful flower—a Narcissus.
So
what is it, jonquil, daffodil or narcissus? It's an apples and oranges conundrum it seems.
You
can decide, but in my ABC book J is for Jonquil-- whatever it is.
4 comments:
that's a new word for me!
LOL, now that you mention it, I'm not really sure what a Jonquil is either! I always called them Daffodils and those with smaller as in shorter trumpets, Narcissus.
Very interesting! I have heard of them all and I never new they were all the same? LOL! Great information, thanks Crystal ;o) Take Care ;o)
I've always thought the jonquils were the ones with several flowers on one stalk, often white with a rather flat orange trumpet. But I don't have any reason to that's correct! In fact, the word 'jonquil' isn't often heard - although I used to include it in spelling lists of words ending in 'il' - of which there aren't a lot so I needed it to make the list up to a nice, round number! The children I taught always asked what it meant and I just told them it was a kind of daffodil (another word ending in 'il'!)
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