Well Gerry, here I am,
It is not easy to determine a border between N. hedraeanthus and N. blancoi, as the same way is not easy to determine a border with certain white N. albicans and N. cantabricus.
The current taxonomic tendency is:
"hoop petticoat+white= N. cantabricus, something luteolentus will be N. hedraeanthus and yellow+hoop petticoat= N. bulbocodium" L.
I think it is not serious to start any classification with plants that have unknown localities:
Narcissus bulbocodium L. Type locality between Sevilla and Portugal ¿¿?¿??¿? this is like nothing...
Narcissus cantabricus DC. Type locality ¿?¿?¿ Pyrenees?¿?¿ this is directly false
This imprecision have many implications, because I think N. cantabricus contains several species and N. bulbocodium as well. When subsps or species of N. cantabricus and N. bulbocodium get together they offer different hybrids that becomes fertile and their speciation done different results of Narcissus albicans. This might also happen in Morocco, with all the bulbocodiums there, forming such a complex group.
For the moment I know 4 different Narcissus albicans in the wild, that I freely name as:
1.- form 'cantabricus': very big one, more white than N. cantabricus, grows in most of places not easy to make a distribution map.. It smell like cantabricus.
2.- form 'bulbocodium': it is like a pale N. bulbocodium, smelling like N. cantabricus with narrow and long leaves, smelling like N. bulbocodium. It has a range of colours.
3.- form 'stable': more similar to N. cantabricus, brown tunics, several long leaves per bulb, greenish white, smelling like N. cantabricus.
4.- Isolated form without relation with other species, like f. bulbocodium, but with a stable colour and smelling like N. cantabricus.
At the same time there are several hybrids that have called N. x barrae, N. x neocarpetanus... but I think it is impossible to know those hybrids if we don't know their parents first. I find hybrids in both directions between "N. albicans f. cantabricus" and "N. aff nivalis", between "N. bulbocodium ?¿??" and "N. albicans f. cantabricus", between "N. bulbocodium ¿?¿ and N. cantabricus", between N. bulbocodium and N. albicans f. bulbocodium etc...
The problem with N. blancoi are quite similar. They are in general bigger plants than N. hedraeanthus, with erect and long leaves. There are isolated localities and other places where I think they are mixed in one case with N. hedraeanthus, making range of plants, impossible to identify, and other places that N. blancoi is mixed with N. cantabricus, where it is more easy to make the differences, due the color pigmentation and scent. N. blancoi hasn't scent.
Lately I am considering there is no implication of N. cantabricus in the hybrid origin of N. blancoi, it would be possible the species is fact N. albicans f. cantabricus. Recently I research a locality, where they grow together. This could justified the big size of the plants comparing N. hedraeanthus and N. cantabricus.
I have a request to all of you. If you are growing N. hedraeanthus, could you please tell me if it is scented, I don't remember.... Scent are really important as is inherited, the bencenoids and isoprenodis that form the fragrance can help much than many other considerations, I think.
so difficult to explain in my basic English!!
