Description
(incorrectly listed as N. bulbocodium nivalis or N. nivalis by various authors but actually it is neither of those)
A lovely, little hoop-petticoat Daffodil from the Atlas mountains of Morocco where it grows in snow melt meadows. The foliage is quite broad for a bulbocodium section species (we are still only talking millimetres however) and the leaves are a bright and glossy green.
The flowers are a vivid chrome-yellow and as they emerge from the ground and the leaves, they briefly face stiffly upwards with greatly exserted anthers which protrude noticeably from the trumpet, exceeded only by the style, which sticks out even further (see gallery pictures). The protrusion of both the style and the anthers, serves to separate this quickly from the similar jacquemoudii where only the style is exserted. As the plant develops, so the stem elongates and the flowers are gradually borne more horizontally on stems which are considerably longer than the leaves at emergence. There seems to be very little variation in the species and all that we have seen are an intense yellow with delightful, initially up-facing flowers, just hinted with a hint of emerald green on the outside of the petals. Grown under the same conditions as jacquemoudii, this is about 14 days later into flower.
A fabulous plant in cultivation growing and flowering well under “normal” growing conditions for the lovely hoop-petticoat group. In the wild it grows in peaty and acidic, transiently-sodden meadows resulting from an inundation of snow-melt water. It does not need this inundation (which is of fresh, constantly moving, not stagnant, water) in cultivation.
Described by Fernández Casas in 1986 under this name, (Fontqueria 10: 9-11, 1986) , though the taxon itself was known for very many years before this, under other names. The description is based on the find made by Fernández Casas and Daniel Jeanmonod (after whom it is named) in 1980. Endemic to the Moroccan Great Atlas though it seems that in the south west of its range it reaches Jebel Sirwa (Siroua) which is usually included within the Anti-Atlas range.
Raised from a Jim Archibald seed collection made above Tizi-n-Tischka, at 2,000 m. Jim said in his list this is the same as N. bulbocodium ssp. nivalis of Maire however Maire had a wider concept of that plants and Fernández Casas says that nivalis proper is found only on the Iberian peninsula. He does not consider that N. b. nivalis occurs at all in Africa and it appears that this collection is referable to Narcissus jeanmonodii. We have had this independently checked with the same conclusion being reached as to identity.
Narcissus jeanmonodii
