Quandary

Hi Folks,

I have a quandary which those of you familiar with species narcissus in the wild may be able to help me solve.

Many of you are aware of my naturalised patch of species N cyclamineus. I used to get about 80 flowers in the patch but having shared too many bulbs I am down to about 20 flowers this year.Dscf0172

As part of the patch this little fellow has popped up. We don’t have bees at this time of the year, and the nearest other cultivars are about 5m across the lawn. Those closest are Bambi and Little Gem.
My questions are – does N cyclamineus in the wild only partly reflex at times?
I doubt that this is a hybrid of Bambi so is it possible that somehow some pollen of Little Gem has crossed the lawn?

Species or hybrid?

I will mark the plant and leave the stem to see if it sets seed which may be a helpful indicator.

Dave Adams

5 comments for “Quandary

  1. David
    It looks like a hybrid. It does not look like the species.
    Graham

  2. Wow that was quick, two minutes after posting. I agree that it appears to be a hybrid but, given the growing situation, I’m unsure where the pollen would come from.
    Given that the patch is maintained by self pollinated seed does this now compromise the integrity of the bulbs as genuine species?

    Dave

  3. Dave
    If the ones that have come up look like the species then you are pretty safe. Where you will get into trouble is if the hybrid is pollinated by species seed. You will have trouble picking out the resulting seedling because it will be 75% N. cyclamineus and in all likelihood look exactly like the species. We have a number of such seedlings and unless you know the parentage you can’t tell the difference without DNA test.
    We hand pollinate our species in the hope of avoiding the problem but I recall one put that had a hybrid in it so even then it is not without risk. We have lots of bulbs flowering at the same time. Luckily we don’t have a lot of bees that pollinate in our shade house.

  4. Point taken Graham. I intend to collect the seed and plant it in a container then I will remove the bulb when it is ready and also plant it elsewhere.

    Dave

  5. I agree with Graham: All the ones of the species I saw in the wild were very reflexed.

    Harold

     

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