HAPPY EASTER!

It's been a week since the Easter weekend now, and spring is finally springing! In honour of Easter, I thought I'd celebrate a traditional flower for this time of the year that has been looking absolutely fabulous around campus - daffodils!

Fabulous Flowers

The daffodil (or Narcissus) is a spring-flowering bulb, with very distinctive flowers - a central trumpet surrounded by petals. This large trumpet structure, known as a corona, evolved from stamens (the pollen-producing part of plants), and has important implications for its pollination. Daffodils are insect-pollinated, and the size and shape of the flower is adapted to allow bees to enter the corona in search of nectar. Here, they initially come into contact with the stigma, where pollen from other daffodils is 'dropped off' to pollinate the flower. Then, the bees touch the anthers, where pollen from this daffodil is 'picked up', ready to be taken to a new flower during the process of cross-pollination.

Crazy Colours

While traditionally we may think of daffodils as an iconic yellow flower, there are in fact several colour combinations seen in these flowers, even just on the UEA campus...


Coronas classically yellow, while petals paler cream


The OG daffodil, yellow all-over


Bright white petals with a small, orange-ringed corona

Originally a northern European wildflower, daffodils started being cultivated as a garden plant in the 17th century in England, when white varieties were first introduced. Since then, continued cultivation and hybridisation has seen numerous cultivars of daffodils with different colours appear in our gardens. And its not just variations on yellow and white as I've found, there are even pretty pink varieties too! All of this breeding has not just affected the colour of daffodils, but their flower shape too. With so many different types of daffodil now around, the RHS created a classification system, splitting daffodils into 13 different divisions.

Easter Egg-citement


They may come in all colours of the rainbow, but daffodils are still at heart a yellow flower, and some even say that the daffodils' association with Easter is what makes yellow such a symbolic colour for this celebration. And while today daffodils do tend to bloom around Easter time, legend says the first ever daffodil bloomed during the Last Supper, to comfort Christ before his death. This has lead to their association with Lent, Easter, and more widely as a symbol of rebirth and new beginnings. Whether this is true or not, daffodils certainly bring some floral fun and cool colours to Easter now!


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