Authors: L.
Leaves two per bulb, 20cm long by 4-5mm wide, slightly glaucous, keeled or striate on outer surface, erect to decumbent, sometimes coiled at tip. Stem to 30cm tall. Pedicels to 4cm long. Tube 15mm. Flowers one to six, pendent, to 6cm in diameter, tube 1.5cm long, tepals milk white, often with pale yellow median streak, sharply reflexed, often twisted, not imbricate, corona milk white, cup-shaped, usually parallel sided above but occasionally incurved, usually entire but wavy, to 1.7cm high by 1.7cm in diameter. Anthers three in tube, three exserted, the style further exserted, spring. Mountains in the open and in woods or among scrub at lower altitudes in acid soil, northern Spain. N.t. var. cernuus (syn. N.t. subsp. pallidulus) differs as follows: leaves 22cm long by 2mm wide, green, flat at base becoming round above, striate on outer surface, erect to decumbent. Stem to 22cm tall. Pedicels to 2.8cm long. Flowers one to three, occasionally four, up to 4cm in diameter, usually milk white or cream to pale yellow, occasionally with corona darker than petals, the tepals sharply reflexed, sometimes twisted, not imbricate, corona very variable, 9-12mm high by 8-13mm in diameter, typically cup-shaped with parallel sides above, but sometimes incurved or bell-shaped, usually entire but wavy, but sometimes six-lobed, crenulate or fringed. Mountains, from over 1500m. almost down to sea level with increasing shelter at lower altitudes, in acid soil in northern, central and southern Spain as far south as Sierra Nevada plus most of Portugal. N.t. var. con-color (syn. N. concolor, N. aurantiacus) is similar to var. cernuus but with flowers uniform golden yellow, leaves and stems slightly glaucous and coronas tending to be less high. Central Portugal to central Spain.
N.t. subsp. capax (syn. N.t. var. loiseleurii, N.t. var. calathinus) is similar to var. triandrus and possibly not distinct. Maritime sand in Isles de Glenans off Finisterre, France. Probably not in cultivation. Some authorities apply this name to plants with flowers having tepals 2-3cm and coronas 1.4-2.icm in length which grow only on the Isles de Glenan but similar sized flowers have been found in north-western Spain.
Plant Portrait: Narcissus triandrus ssp. triandrus
