Description
The correct name for the widely spreading, eastern Mediterranean plants formerly thought of as just being Narcissus serotinus. However old treatments (and many new studies) which apply this name are flawed and refer to two or even three different species. (In fact N. serotinus is a valid name, but it is a species with a much more limited in distribution and it is largely confined to the western Mediterranean regions).
N. obsoletus proper is a very variable plant. It has spikes with one to four flowers, (serotinus usually has one or very rarely two flowers at most). These are smallish, by garden daffodil standards, but are a good size for one of the autumnal species. They are highly fragrant though the fragrance varies with floral age, from sweet and light upon opening, to heavier and more medicinal (a bit like back liniment) as the flowers get older. They are the shape of stars, in white, with yellow or yellow-green pollen and a tiny, more or less entire, vestigial olive-yellow, yellow-orange, orange or red-brown, cup. (serotinus has a bright yellow, divided cup). The cup of obsoletus can be triangular, triangular-rounded or properly rounded and the edges can be incurving, or not, it is quite variable and no one feature regarding cup-shape is totally diagnostic. We have noted cup-colour differences even between the earliest (olive-yellow) and the latest flowers (yellow) in our own stock, though the stock is true. This is simply variability within the species.
The flowers of obsoletus are held on 15-20 (25) cm tall stems and they can be borne with or without the leaves (serotinus proper, almost always flowers without its leaves). The shape of the floral tube also differs between the two species and they really can’t be confused once you know that several, similar autumnal species exist and you are familiar with the differences. We have illustrated the more or less, parallel-sided tube of obsoletus in gallery picture 5
This likes a fertile and well-drained loam-based compost, maintained on a Mediterranean cycle of watering and temperatures. We find it moderately cold-hardy, but in order to ensure decent flowering and increase/seed set we keep the species in pots under frost-free glass. Others (including our original source) have it on an unheated regime. To promote flowering, we dry rest these over summer after growth dies back in late spring, then try to soak the compost, in late August but then leave the to dry out, not watering again until 4-5 weeks later. This usually works the trick. Please note though that most of this little group of “primitive” autumn-flowering Narcissus are sporadic in flowering unless conditions are perfect.
This is horticultural stock, raised from wild seed collected from plants growing in roadside rubbish tips behind El Palmar, Cadiz Province, S.Spain.
This is free-flowering with us and it grows readily also. The flowers are a little variable, with orange-yellow to yellow, triangular cups (rather than olive as in some forms) but more noticeably rounded than in other triangular forms. We find it absolutely text-book-typical of the species and a very nice form indeed.
