Research
The International Daffodil Register and Classified List (1998)
INTERPRETING THE REGISTER
- Description, colour and attributes
Descriptions have been compiled from various sources: registration forms, photographs, paintings, catalogues and personal observation. A number of expressions have had to be ignored, or have been interpreted only from a picture or on the advice of the registrant. For example, the term "flat", which of the perianth segments sometimes seems to have meant "at right angles to the corona", sometimes "not concave" and sometimes both, has not been copied into the present descriptions and has been interpreted only with care. Several terms for corona shape come into this category: eg goblet, vase, chalice.
Colour terms present similar problems. For example, sulphur, primrose, citron, lemon and gold are all open to interpretation, unless there is evidence that they are being used as they were in the Horticultural Colour Chart of 1938, in which case they can be correlated with today's RHS Colour Charts. But many such colour terms have simply been copied into the present descriptions, presuming that they can help differentiate between the many tones of the few full colours in daffodils. They have been interpreted only to the extent of assuming, in the case of sulphur or primrose, for example, that they do mean yellow and do warrant a Y for yellow in the colour code.
Colours that can be identified with a number on the RHS Colour Chart (1966, reprinted 1986, 1995) are given the Colour Chart number (eg 9A) together with a standard colour name drawn up in A Contribution towards Standardization of Colour Names in Horticulture published by the American Rhododendron Society in 1984 (the standard colour name for 9A being vivid yellow). A few of the standard colour names are mis-leading as far as daffodils are concerned, in which case they have been altered; the number is then put in brackets.
Descriptions include, in order, one or more of the following items of information:
About the whole flower: number of flowers per stem (unless single-flowered); outline; width; colour (if self coloured); poise
About the perianth segments: outline; apex; colour*; direction (eg spreading or reflexed); surface direction (eg plane or concave); margins (eg wavy); surface condition (eg smooth); substance (eg strong); relationship (eg separated or overlapping); differences in the inner segments (eg narrower)
About the corona: form; surface (eg ribbed); colour*; axial direction of mouth (eg straight or flared); circumaxial habit of mouth (eg even or frilled); axial direction of rim (eg flanged); circumaxial habit of rim (eg entire or crenate)
* A colour description is usually only included if it adds to the colour code: for example, "fl. white" would not usually be used for a flower coded W-W, but "fl. greenish white" would be. However, an unqualified colour (eg white) would be used in conjunction with a qualified colour (eg bright yellow): for example, "corona white, with a band of bright yellow at rim".
About height: dwarf = less than 32.5 cm or 13 ins; tall = more than 67.5 cm or 27 ins; no mention = standard (32.5-67.5 cm or 13-27 ins) or unknown. Measurements supplied by registrants should be of plants grown in unsheltered conditions in the open air
About flowering season: these are very early, early, mid-season, late, very late. Early to mid-season means early season to mid-season
About weather resistance: although the term sunproof is used, its meaning is probably nearer to sun-resistant in most cases
About chromosome counts: these were assembled by Dr P.E.Brandham, to whom the RHS is indebted. They appear in Chromosome Numbers in Narcissus Cultivars and their Significance to the Plant Breeder in The Plantsman 14: 133-168 (1992). Where more than one number is quoted for a variety, two or more independent workers have made the count. The differences are probably due to mis-identification. Estimates of fertility based on chromosomal constitution are indicated in the table below.
The estimates should be taken only as a rough guide to fertility, since plants with chromosome numbers indicating sterility can produce occasional viable gametes. Other plants with chromosome numbers expected to result in fertility (eg diploids, tetraploids) can sometimes be quite sterile because of genetical imbalance, or absence of pollen as in many double-flowered varieties. Such doubles can nevertheless be female-fertile sometimes.