Happy St David’s Day. Where would the UK be without beautiful Wales. To celebrate, we present daffodils and leeks in art.
The Welsh for leek is cenhinen and the Welsh for daffodil is cenhinen Pedr which translates to Peter’s leek. It is thought that the latter was adopted as a second national emblem by accident, as over the years, perhaps because of the names, the two became confused.
Confusion surrounding Daffodils has at times been reported in the news, with supermarkets advised to place them as far away from vegetables as possible, to stop non-english speaking people mistaking one for the other. Daffodils contain toxic chemical lycorine which when eaten can cause so called Narcissi poisoning. Given that leeks and daffodils are in the same plant family – Amaryllidaceae – this confusion is perhaps understandable, as similar physical characteristics such as bulb and leaf shape appear across the group.
Amaryllidaceae is a plant family that in recent times has grown to incorporate other groups of plants that prior to molecular analysis were thought separate. Today, the 1600-ish species of plant that now form this family, include subgroups Allioideae (including onions garlic, leeks and chives) and Amaryllidoideae (e.g. amaryllis, daffodils, snowdrops), as well as Agapanthoideae (e.g. agapanthus).
Here a some artworks from both plants.
Google Doodle 01/03/2015
Angels and Leeks, Robert Doisneau, 1953
Yotam Ottolenghi’s braised leeks with goat’s curd
Photograph: Colin Campbell for the Guardian (2011)
Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton
Daffodil, Jacques Le Moyne, 1585, c/o British Museum
The Smiths
David Silbert, Leek Montage
New Fast Automatic Daffodils, Big (1990) record cover.
Image c/o Vinyl301.com
Leeks, Jorge Carocas, 2015
Daffodils and Celery Lucian Freud, 1947
William Morris wallpaper c/0 william-morris.com