Wild daffodil (Narcissus pseudonarcissus) – by Lucy Histed

It may still feel like the depths of winter but February is the time to start looking for emerging wild daffodils but if you don’t see any yet – keep looking, they flower right through to April.

A wild daffodil is one that exists in natural habitats and hasn’t been influenced by man. It has its own characteristics that separate it from the cultivated daffodils that we plant in our gardens. It is also known as the Lent lily because it blooms during the period of Lent before Easter. The bulb of the daffodil has narcotic properties. It was recommended by the 17th century herbalist, Thomas Culpepper, as a purgative and emetic, but the Botanical Society of the British Isles warn that the plant is poisonous.

Wild daffodils are much more delicate that those we find in our gardens. These graceful plants have a golden-yellow trumpet surrounded by pale yellow outer petals and upright pale grey-green leaves. They are also slightly shorter than cultivated daffodils, rising to just 30cm in height.

The native British wild daffodil was once common in the wild throughout British woodlands. However, the clearance of woodland and improvement of pasture, radically reduced the numbers of wild daffodils. It hasn’t been aided either by the collection of bulbs by gardeners and by the drainage of much of its original habitat.


Wild daffodils like moist banks in open oak or ash woods. You may be able to spot them on the shores of Ullswater, as William Wordsworth did when he penned his infamous line ‘a host, of golden daffodils’. But wild daffodils are actually much more common in south Cumbria and can be seen in the open woodlands of Willington Woods, near Ulverston, and Sea Wood at Bardsea. River edges often have a smattering of trees that provide dappled light and can be seen on the lower Duddon. You can see also them at Cumbria Wildlife Trust’s Howe Ridding Wood Nature Reserve at Whitbarrow. Visit www.cumbriawildlifetrust.org.uk/whitbarrow-howe-ridding-wood.html.