Lent Lily

Narcissus pseudonarcissus - the Wild daffodil or Lent lily - was once one of the commonest of wildflowers in England. It suffered a huge decline in the mid-nineteenth century and now survives in patches, mainly in south Devon, the Black Mountains in Wales, the Lake District in Cumbria and along the Gloucestershire-Herefordshire border. Its fairly unusual to find them here in East Sussex but we are lucky enough to have a perhaps a thousand on the reserve in three different locations. Wild daffodils are much shorter than the garden variety, with very narrow grey-green leaves, and the flower is much smaller, with pale yellow petals surrounding a darker yellow trumpet. Unfortunately people have a habit of dumping garden bulbs onto the reserve and these more vigorous varieties are out-competing the wild ones.