Poet's Narcissus

Poet's Narcissus

Narcissus poeticus

What a nice name for a plant - Poet's Narcissus.  It's easy to picture a poet sitting on the lawn admiring these plants while thinking of rhymes.  Here's one by Milton:

Sweet Echo, sweetest nymph, that liv'st unseen
Within thy aery shell
By slow Meander's margent green.
And in the violet-embroidered vale,
Where the love-lorn nightingale
Nightly to thee her sad song mourneth well;
Canst thou not tell me of a gentle pair
That likes thy Narcissus are?
Oh, if thou have
Hid them in some flowery cave,
Tell me but where,
Sweet queen of parly, daughter of the sphere,
So may'st thou be translated to the skies,
And give resounding grace to all heaven's harmonies.

This plant is found around old homesteads where the early settlers planted it.  The buildings may be gone, but the Narcissus remains.  It's not too hard to distinguish from the other Narcissus found in the area, the Daffodil.  This plant has white petals and a short, somewhat flattened looking tube.  The edge of the tube tends to have a red or dark orange ring.