The Daffodil … the flower that mean

The Daffodil … the flower that means spring. Daffodil, Narcissus, Jonquil. First, let’s settle the names. The official botanical name of the whole genus is Narcissus. Daffodil is the common name. Jonquil is a “species name” within the Narcissus genus. This means that certain daffodils are called Narcissus jonquilla. Some people, particularly in our Southern states, use Jonquil as a common name for the whole genus, but it’s really the species name for a minor group having multiple smaller flowers on each stem. So when you’re using the common name, all colors, sizes and types are Daffodils. If you get into the botanical or Latin names, they all begin with Narcissus (the “genus”) and end with a different “species” name.
The famous Poet's Daffodil , for example, is Narcissus poeticus. It has that name simply because Linneaus, the man who devised our botanical nomenclature, decided that a certain wild species (white petals with a small bright-colored center) was the one that inspired the ancient tale of Narcissus, handed down by the poets since ancient Greek times.
Jonquil? And as mentioned, a small, multi-flowered yellow daffodil type is botanically Narcissus jonquilla. Of course, you don’t need to know the botanical names to enjoy daffodils. Just choose the colors and types you like. But the story of Narcissus is interesting


From the ancient poets to Wordsworth and beyond. For all time, it seems, the daffodil has inspired the poet, and even today, nothing connotes the renewal of spring to us as dramatically as a drift of fresh daffodils swaying in a meadow. William Wordsworth, the legendary British poet, perhaps said it best when he wrote of the flowers in his classic poem, “Daffodils”, published in 1804. This is the poem that so artfully describes the poet viewing “ten thousand” daffodils beside a lake, and is also the source of the phrase, “Dancing with Daffodils.”