Flowering plants have an array of strategies to attract pollinators, the most successful of which are the contrasting bright colours or fragrant scents of their flowers. Coincidentally, these desirable features have also attracted the attention of man, making flowers among the most enjoyed natural products that are not sought as food.
The daffodils would win awards both in flower beauty and fragrance departments (only some roses outcompete them). They are characterised by their flowers with six white petals, yellow in some species, and a central golden crown combined with a deep, sweet fragrance that can be detected from afar.
In our countryside, biodiversity donated us with two native species, one of which needs no introduction with the Maltese, the French daffodil, known as narċis or ranċis, which usually grow in clayey fields.
This daffodil is not endemic to or originating from France as the name suggests, since it is widespread through most parts of the Mediterranean, typically forming tufts of flowering stems with six to 10 flowers about two to three centimetres across and blossoming in winter.
For a very long time, flowering bunches have been picked from fields to decorate and imbue villas or worship places with fragrance. Thanks to local environmental education, by ERA, EcoGozo Directorate and several NGOs, this bad habit has decreased considerably nowadays because over-gathering can threaten these charismatic wild plants.
The other species is a smaller form with only one to two flowers (rarely more), flowering in October, after the first rains, and hence the common name ‘autumn daffodil’ or ranċis mwaħħar (mwaħħar which means late, because the plant flowers in the late months of the year).
The study of the classification of plants (referred to as plant taxonomy) is one of my main study areas. As EcoGozo Directorate’s botanist and after studying wild daffodils for some 10 years, I was baffled by a third and very rare daffodil growing in Malta and Gozo, which at first glance looked like the French daffodil (scientific name Narcissus tazetta) but flowers more or less in the same period of the autumnal daffodil (Narcissus deficiens).
First attempts were made to attribute this rare daffodil to the species ‘elegant daffodil’ (Narcissus elegans) for its superficial similarity, but further research in the fruit and pollen (often bypassed in the study of daffodils) revealed important and decisive clues. This rare daffodil produces shrivelled pollen and no seeds; hence, the plant is sterile.
Due to its early flowering, this variety of French daffodil and the autumn daffodil can be in flower at the same time, resulting in rare occasions of hybridisation
These are characteristics of hybridisation, hence a cross of two species, but the French and the autumn daffodils do not blossom simultaneously for cross-pollination and fertilisation to take place.
The fourth player enters the scene: an early flowering form of the French daffodil. It flowers in November-December and grows on rocky ground, typically on valley sides and coastal cliffs.
Due to its early flowering, this variety of French daffodil and the autumn daffodil can be in flower at the same time, resulting in rare occasions of hybridisation.
My research also revealed that this French daffodil was already described by a British botanist, William Herbert, in 1837 as Hermione aequilimba. He was a daffodil specialist and spent some time in Malta, where he was also amazed by the unique rocky habitat and early blossoming of this variety.
The resulting hybrid daffodil was new to science and was described from specimens in Gozo and dedicated to the late naturalist Michael Briffa, who contributed a lot to Maltese botany and mycology, and had no plant named after him.
The new plant was scientifically baptised as Narcissus × briffae. Most features are intermediate between the two parents, usually forming small tufts with two leaves per plant and two to five flowers with a crown size between the autumn and the French daffodil.
The paper, published with Sandro Lanfranco, an associate professor at the University of Malta (link below), widened the knowledge of our local flora and increased the number of wild daffodils in the Maltese islands from two to four, and is widely accepted by the Narcissus scientific community.
The EcoGozo directorate within the ministry of Gozo and planning is pleased that the resources it dedicates to the research of biodiversity bring a breeze of fragrant air to our local flora every now and then.
Stephen Mifsud is a botanist and mycologist at EcoGozo Directorate, ministry for Gozo and planning. The scientific paper can be accessed at https://www.mdpi.com/1424-2818/16/7/397.