Last night I finally got around to finishing my daffodil post from 2023, it was more notes than a blog post. And I put the finishing touches on it today, so I do not have a new post for Saint David’s Day. My brain hurts. I can’t believe that it took me a year before I could wrap my head around my notes and craft it into an article. Not sure why it was so difficult. But today I struck gold while researching daffodils. I was trying to find out when narcissi were introduced to the British Isles and got railroaded with false information, with noted writers insisting there was a native daffodil. I finally put that theory to rest via genetic analysis. Their homeland is Iberia (they have the most genetic variation while the cultivars have a limited gene pool.) It looks like they and the word daffodil were introduced to England sometime during the 1590s, but it could’ve been as early as 1400. The information is lost in the mists of time. But now I can stay unequivocally that narcissi are not native to the British Isles. However, I had a great time tracking down the literary references in the process of writing that piece. and the reason why I write is about discovery.
No comments:
Post a Comment