A name, first used by Dioscorides, for a bulbous plant.
.Perennial herbs, bulbs large. Leaves broad and linear, more or less in 2 ranks. Flowers 3-15 in an umbel on a solid stalk with mostly 2 free bracts. Perianth white with a long tube and narrow spreading to erect lobes, the stamens united at the base to form a cup. Ovary inferior with 3 chambers, each with numerous ovules in 1 or 2 vertical rows. Fruit capsule with black, angular seeds.
Grown for the attractive large, white fragrant flowers.
Bulb offsets or seeds.
Similar to Hymenocallis but the seeds angular, not round or oblong.
16 species from the Canary Islands, western Africa and the Mediterranean.
Bjornstad (1973).
Source: (2005). Narcissus. In: . Horticultural Flora of South-eastern Australia. Volume 5. Flowering plants. Monocotyledons. The identification of garden and cultivated plants. University of New South Wales Press.
