DAFFODIL NAMES: A BOTANICAL FEAST

In honor of Spring, I forthwith present you a tiny taste of a marvelous botanical compendium called ~

THE CLASSIFIED LIST AND INTERNATIONAL REGISTER OF DAFFODIL NAMES,
published by the Royal Horticultural Society in 1961.

I picked up this narrow, nigh colorless volume in an old book shop in London years ago, thumbed through it and became entranced by the wild assortment of names. But, as my parents’ home was perched atop a hillside covered with daffodils of at least ten varieties, I was swiftly drawn into a vision of myriad avid, patient horticulturalists practicing their botanical skills by hybridizing these darling floral marvels. I then began to imagine the offices of the Royal Horticultural Society, full of tweedy academics and their amanuenses meticulously analyzing and cataloguing the new entrants, possibly arbitrating competing claims to ownership, and often sighing with delight at the newcomers. All this while elsewhere in London, let’s see now, 1961… isn’t that the year the scandalous Profumo Affair began? But that is an altogether different specimen of Brit.

The Classified List has no cumulative numbering system and many names include a series of subspecies and umpteen cultivars, but I would make a loose estimate that it contains around 3000 names of Daffodils. While there are countless obvious and cliched names, Princess this and Queen that, it is clear that many of the cultivators are male, due to the frequent use of highly masculine adjectives and male historical figures as names. It is amusing to imagine these “manly men” finding themselves with such delicate namesakes.

You can either drop down to the **footnotes to read about the difference between a Daffodil and a Narcissus or just bop ahead. 

Enjoy!

Hercules, Heraclitus!,
        Hellfire, Hindustan,
              His Lordship, Hit Parade

Iliad, Imp, Indian Chief, Inferno

Joker, Jollyman, Jungle Cock

Kitkat, Knave of Hearts,
          Knight Templar, Knockmoroon

Laughing Water, Lebanon, Leprechaun,
          Little Charlie, Lolita, Lucifer

Metaphor, Ming, Millionaire, Misdemeanor,
         Mrs. Percy Neale, Moe!

Nemo, Nirvana, Nylon

Oliver Cromwell, Orange Ophelia, Othello

After burrowing through 350 pages of daffodil names, and marveling at how impossibly diverse a genus it is, I’m getting a weird feeling that I grew daffodils in a former life; probably wore tea dresses and pearls when necessary, but much preferred to kneel down in my britches and fiddle with the bulbs and blooms. What might I have called my daffodil? Hmmm, probably Heteroclite 🙂

FOOTNOTES:

A bit of clarification vis-a-vis nomenclature. “Any member of the plant genus Narcissus (Latin scientific name) (Family: Amaryllidaceae) could be called a daffodil (common non-scientific name).  Some use the genus name Narcissus as a common name – narcissus – to refer to the plants that can be found in the genus, possibly a questionable practice.  There are at least 40 and maybe as many as 200 different species in the genus and over 25,000 registered cultivars (named hybrids) classified into 13 Divisions per the Royal Horticultural Society classification system.” Curtis E. Young, Ohio State University, March 26, 2020. (The princely cultivar in the top image was taken by Curtis as well.)

And from Wikipedia: The genus Narcissus appeared some time in the Late Oligocene to Early Miocene eras, around 24 million years ago, in the Iberian peninsula. While the exact origin of the word Narcissus is unknown it is frequently linked to its fragrance which was thought to be narcotic, and to the legend of the youth of that name who fell in love with his reflection. In the English language the common name Daffodil appears to be derived from the Asphodel with which it was commonly compared.