Daphnes - A Heady Scent of Spring

The Daphnes are hugely popular as garden ornamentals and this is largely due to the remarkably strong scent of their flowers, which comes right at the time when we all need a break from the weather. We have two native daphnes in the UK - the deciduous Mezereon (Daphne mezereum) and the evergreen Spurge-laurel (Daphne laureola) - and they both flower from February to March. Both these species can be found in East Anglia, but only Spurge-laurel appears to be native here, with Mezereon favouring limestone soils elsewhere in the country.

Now is the time to get out and look for Daphnes, so I have just added them to the Flora of East Anglia website pages!

The native Spurge-laurel has greenish flowers that are tucked in amongst the leathery, evergreen leaves - perhaps to protect them a little from frosts. But their subtle appearance belies their wonderful scent which is always a real treat in the late days of winter or early in spring. I often find these while there is still snow on the ground - although maybe not this year!

Mezereon is perhaps the best known of our daphnes, since it is hugely popular as a garden plant. The intensely purple-pink flowers of Mezereon look stunning when they appear on bare stems, before the leaves open. A good colony of these plants grows on a protected reserve in West Suffolk but was most likely introduced; either planted by a well-meaning person or perhaps bird sown from berries.

Mezereon flowers are followed by a second colourful display, provided by its shiny berries that start off green and turn bright red. These are much favoured by birds and occasional plants that pop up around our region perhaps originate from berries that have passed through an avian gardener!

As we come into the final year of field work for the BSBI's Atlas 2020, I am reminded that there are always surprises to be found out there, as the natural world never stands still. In spring 2017, a group of us in the Norfolk Flora Group working on recording for Atlas 2020, came across a number of plants of Twin-flowered Daphne (Daphne pontica) in woodland to the West of Norwich. How these came to be here, we've no idea, but they were well-established and had clearly been present for some time. It's possible that someone planted them to provide berries for Pheasants, but it seems an unlikely choice of species for that, so perhaps they simply found their way there via the local bird population from a nearby garden. This is a new species for the county list and certainly an unexpected find!

Reflecting on Narcissus

The ancient mythology of Narcissus falling in love with his own reflection spawned the word 'narcissism' for someone who might seem to be a little two wrapped up in themselves. However, it seems that any connection with the flower, Narcissus, has never been proven and the plants may have got their name via a different root. Whatever the story, the Narcissi are plants that we now come to know as daffodils - a word that itself has a mysterious root, seemingly emerging over time from the ancient word 'Asphodelus', itself a type of Mediterranean flower.

Daffodils are the very essence of spring, reaching their glorious peak during late March and early April and seen as one of the great hopes of emergence from winter - glorious stands of yellow fill the lanes and copses as the natural world revitalises itself after the winter rest. So it seems timely that I should have just added the daffodils on the Flora of East Anglia website as we enter the beginning of March. Of course, horticultural breeding and the introduction of more than just our one native species, has meant that the first daffodils can readily be seen by the end of December, with some seeing us into early May. But those great golden sheets will always be an early April thing to me and I can't wait for them to really get going. As I look out of my window, the early varieties 'Tete-a-tete' and 'February Gold' are already doing their thing, so it's time to brush up on identification before the riot begins!

Common Daffodil (Narcissus pseudonarcissus) is the only native species in the UK and is very localised in East Anglia (and perhaps not native here), but it can often be found in the better-managed village churchyards, where it naturalises more freely than many of the modern cultivars. 

Common Daffodil in all its spring glory.

Mankind seems always to need to tamper with natural beauty. Anyone who knows me will know that I generally wince at so-called double flowers that seem to completely miss the point of the beauty in simplicity - especially in cheerful spring plants such as daffodils and primroses. East Anglia has a great quantity of a very old, double variety called 'Telamonius Plenus' and also known under the name of 'Van Sion', which dates back to at least the 15th Century and is well established in the region, even on some nature reserves. 

Smaller-flowered daffodils often have a number of flowers on each stem. Varieties of Bunch-flowered Daffodil (Narcissus tazetta) come in a range of colours and are often encountered in parks and cemeteries.

And daffodils don't just come in yellow! Pheasant's-eye Daffodil (Narcissus poeticus) readily spreads to form dense colonies and puts on a staggering show in the mountains of southern Europe where it is native. Strangely, it is also known as Poet's Daffodil, which is strange as it hardly fits Wordsworth's line: .... When all at once I saw a crowd, A host, of golden daffodils.

You can go straight to the daffodils page on Flora of East Anglia by clicking this link!