page_title: Narcissus (plant)
section_title: Narcissus
hierarchical_section_title: Narcissus (plant) / Taxonomy / Names and etymology / Narcissus
caption_attribution_description: English: Narcissus juncifolius (N. jonquila), from Clusius "Rariorum Stirpium Historiae" 1576
context_page_description: Narcissus is a genus of predominantly spring flowering perennial plants of the amaryllis family, Amaryllidaceae. Various common names including daffodil, narcissus and jonquil are used to describe all or some members of the genus. Narcissus has conspicuous flowers with six petal-like tepals surmounted by a cup- or trumpet-shaped corona. The flowers are generally white or yellow, with either uniform or contrasting coloured tepals and corona.
  Narcissus were well known in ancient civilisation, both medicinally and botanically, but formally described by Linnaeus in his Species Plantarum. The genus is generally considered to have about ten sections with approximately 50 species. The number of species has varied, depending on how they are classified, due to similarity between species and hybridisation. The genus arose some time in the Late Oligocene to Early Miocene epochs, in the Iberian peninsula and adjacent areas of southwest Europe. The exact origin of the name Narcissus is unknown, but it is often linked to a Greek word for intoxicated and the myth of the youth of that name who fell in love with his own reflection.
context_section_description: The derivation of the Latin narcissus (Greek: νάρκισσος) is unknown, but may be connected with hell. It is frequently linked to the myth of Narcissus, who became so obsessed with his own reflection in water that he drowned and the narcissus plant sprang from where he died. There is no evidence for the flower being named for the youth. Narcissus poeticus, which grows in Greece, has a fragrance that has been described as intoxicating. Pliny wrote that the plant was named for its fragrance (ναρκάω narkao, "I grow numb" ), not the youth. Furthermore, there were accounts of narcissi growing long before the story of Narcissus appeared (see Greek culture). It has also been suggested that daffodils bending over streams represent the youth admiring his reflection. Linnaeus used the Latin name "narcissus" for the plant but was preceded by others such as Matthias de l'Obel (1591) and Clusius (1576). The name Narcissus was not uncommon for men in Roman times.
  The plural form of the common name "narcissus" has caused some confusion. Dictionaries list "narcissi", "narcissuses" and "narcissus". However, texts on usage such as Garner and Fowler state that "narcissi" is the preferred form. The common name narcissus should not be capitalised.
caption: N. juncifolius, Carolus Clusius Rariorum stirpium 1576
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