Expert: Kenneth Joergensen - 5/10/2004

Question
I live in the San Francisco Bay Area, zone 9ish.  In the fall, I planted some bulbs that were sold as daffodils (and they looked like daffodil bulbs, of which I've planted hundreds), however, when they came up they were clearly NOT daffodils.  

The foliage is identical to crocosima foliage (we've got lots of crocosima here)--sets of about six or seven upright, spear-like leaves arranged in a tight fan shape, about 24" tall.  I thought they were crocosima, but a few weeks ago, after all the crocosima flowers in the neighborhood died back, these plants sent up flower stems which also somewhat resembled crocosima flower stems, but more plentiful.

The stems came up from the centers of what looked like regular leaves, but which on closer inspection were actually more like two leaves stuck together in a kind of envelope. Each envelope produced three or four flower stems, which now rise about two feet above the tops of the leaves.

In the early stages, the flower stems looked rather like flattened versions of stems of wheat--the little buds which later developed into flowers were very tightly bunched together in a symmetrical grouping, and there were several of these little "wheat heads" on each of the flower stems.    

At first, as the buds swelled, the outsides were orangish in color, and we still thought we might have some odd crocosima, but as they got bigger, they began to space out along the stem, about half an inch apart, one on top of the other, and turned whitish.  They have since started opening into lovely white individual blossoms.

The blossoms are each about 2 1/2 to 3 inches long and are about 2 inches wide at their widest point.  The base of the flower is trumpet-like (about half an inch long), and then it separates into six almond-shaped leaves, three towards the outside, three on the inside.  Four tendrils (stamens? pistils?) come up from the inside, also all white.  They remind me a little of a very simple azalea blossoms, or a larger, more round-petalled version of nicotiana blooms.

The blossoms have no fragrance, and seem to wither in a day or two, though plenty of new blooms open in their place.  The stems seem pretty sturdy, and the plant seems to be thriving in our full sun.

The blossoms stay open all day, and seem to stay open at night as well.  I've since spotted a few of these plants in neighbor's gardens, mostly white, though a few in a pinkish shade.  A few of the stands I've seen look quite thick, so I'm assuming these naturalize in our zone.

I grew up on the East Coast, and never saw a flower like this there.  Any clues as to what it could be?  (It's really pretty, and I'd like to track down more.)

Thanks,

Elise

Answer
Peruvian daffodils ?

http://images.google.com/images?q=peruvian+daffodil&hl=en&btnG=Google+Search

Hymenocallis or Ismene.

The bulbs do look like regular daffodil bulbs which no doubt is the reason for their common name despite the significantly different plant/flower looks.