Narcissus obsoletus (syn. Narcissus elegans) is a Tazetta from Morocco, Southern Spain and Italy. It has a corona that opens olive green and then matures to a sunfast deep orange. I think it is the source of orange for old hybrids such as ‘Gloriousus’. Here is a hybrid with N. obsoletus as one of the grandparents.
N. obsoletus is a grandparent here.
One selection of N. obsoletus that I have makes offsets readily and even though the flower shape is poor I have kept it for its ability to reproduce. At some stage this has produced a sport where the orange of the corona is replaced by an ivory-cream color. Fortunately this sport offsets as readily as the parent stock.
Pot of N. obsoletus. Originally all one clone.
Pale sport of N. obsoletus
I have been line breeding N. obsoletus to get fuller flowers. The photo below is from some third generation. It is difficult getting away from the gaps between the pointed tepals.
Some third generation (F3) line bred N. obsoletus
Many years ago I had a clump of N. pachybulbos growing close to a patch of N. papyraceus. The latter made a lot of seed as it usually does in my climate and we ended up with a hybrid swarm. I selected a number that are small enough to be considered miniatures. One of which was called ‘Microwhite’. This is an unamed ‘Microwhite’ sibling and it has florets that are only 20 mm in diameter.
N. pachybulbos x N. papyraceus
More to come,
Harold