Tokyo Food Safety Information Center » Good things to know » Poisonous plants easily mistaken for harmless ones » Narcissus (Amaryllidaceae)

Narcissus (Amaryllidaceae)

Perennial plant cultivated for decoration is present in many garden varieties and also grows wild. It has oval shaped scaly bulbs underground, grows a flower stalk between the leaves in early spring and blooms a flower at the tip.

Characteristics

Habitat	Cultivated in the garden, it also grows wild in sunny places.
Parts of the plant that may be ingested accidentally.	Leaves, scaly bulbs, etc. It might be mistaken for scaly bulbs of wild rocambole, or its leaves for Chinese chives.
Symptoms	Vomiting, inflammation of stomach and intestines, diarrhea, headache, etc.
Venomous constituents	Alkaloids such as lycorine, tazettine and similar. Whole plant is poisonous.

Narcissus

Left:Wild rocambole scaly bulbs (edible)
and right:Narcissus scaly bulbs (poisonous)