Description
‘Thomas’ Virescent’
4Y-Y
[Double]
(found in south Wales, pre-1892)
Thought to be the double form of N. obvallaris. Dwarfer and earlier than ‘Van Sion’. Although purer forms can still be found (rarely), it is mainly known nowadays as a mycoplasmic variant, with green outer petaloid segments in a somewhat distorted flower-head, as illustrated here. Burbidge (c.1892) called this variant ‘Thomas’ Virescent’, after T.H. Thomas who first found it at Pen-y-lan near Cardiff; it has also been called the Derwydd Daffodil; and it was captioned ‘Lobularis Plenus’ on the painting in the Copeland collection at the Lindley Library – note that the epithets lobularis and obvallaris were at one stage much confused – and indeed for a while we sold this ourselves as “ ‘Lobularis Plenus’ (of Copeland)”. Recently, it has also been in commerce, incorrectly, as pseudonarcissus ‘Plenus’, but the true plant of that name – which is now exceedingly rare [we have only ever seen it once] – has, as you might imagine, straw-white outer petaloid segments.
