Daphne × neapolitana
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Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles
Recommended citation
'Daphne × neapolitana' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.
Synonyms
- Daphne collina var. neapolitana (Lodd.) Lindl.
- Daphne × napolitana G.Lodd. nom. nud.
- Daphne collina var. neapolitana Lindl.
Other taxa in genus
- Daphne acutiloba
- Daphne alpina
- Daphne altaica
- Daphne arbuscula
- Daphne aurantiaca
- Daphne bholua
- Daphne blagayana
- Daphne × burkwoodii
- Daphne caucasica
- Daphne cneorum
- Daphne genkwa
- Daphne giraldii
- Daphne glomerata
- Daphne gnidium
- Daphne × houtteana
- Daphne × hybrida
- Daphne jasminea
- Daphne jezoensis
- Daphne juliae
- Daphne kamtschatica
- Daphne kiusiana
- Daphne kosaninii
- Daphne laureola
- Daphne longilobata
- Daphne × mantensiana
- Daphne mezereum
- Daphne odora
- Daphne oleoides
- Daphne papyracea
- Daphne petraea
- Daphne pontica
- Daphne pseudomezereum
- Daphne retusa
- Daphne rodriguezii
- Daphne × rossetii
- Daphne sericea
- Daphne sophia
- Daphne striata
- Daphne sureil
- Daphne tangutica
- Daphne × thauma
A dense, erect-branched shrub 2 to 3 ft high, of bushy habit, and evergreen; shoots dark brown, with minute forward-pointing hairs. Leaves short-stalked, scattered along the branches, oblanceolate or narrowly obovate, rounded or obtusely angled at the apex, 3⁄4 to 11⁄4 in. long, 1⁄8 to 1⁄3 in. wide; dark glossy green and glabrous above, glaucous and more or less hairy towards the base beneath. Flowers in one or more leafy clusters at the apex of the branches, from ten to fourteen flowers in a cluster, opening successively from March to May, and even later; at first they are rosy purple, but turn pale with age, sweetly scented, 1⁄3 in. long and wide, covered outside with minute whitish down. Fruit not seen.
This daphne, which is one of the most robust and easiest to cultivate of a difficult class of plants, would appear to be a hybrid of natural origin. Lindley, who gave an excellent figure of it in Bot. Reg., t. 822, called it D. collina neapolitana. The general opinion now held is that it is a hybrid; its parentage is usually given as collina × cneorum, but I should rather judge it to be oleoides × cneorum. It is grown in gardens under a variety of names, often as D. oleoides. One of the most useful of daphnes, and fond of lime in the soil.
The status of this daphne remains as controversial at the present time (1971) as when the above words were written. Lindley’s view, that it was no more than a variant of D. collina, was strongly upheld by Keissler in his monograph (Bot. Jahrb., Vol. 25, p. 97) and in this he is followed by Rehder. However, the indumentum of the perianth suggests the influence of D. cneorum; the other parent is more likely to have been D. collina than D. oleoides.
The identity of the daphnes once grown under such names as D. elisae, D. delahayana and D. fioniana is not certain; they are said to resemble D. × neapolitana and may be of the same parentage.
The epithet for this daphne was printed as ‘neapolitana’, which is the correct form for ‘of Naples’, but in fact Loddiges spelt it ‘napolitana’ (it is considered by Brickell and Mathew that this should be allowed to stand).
The most likely provenance of the plant named by Loddiges is the botanical garden at Caserta near Naples. If D. cneorum really enters into the parentage of this daphne, the cross must have taken place in the garden, since D. cneorum does not grow in the Italian peninsula. If, however, the parentage is D. sericea (collina) crossed with D. oleoides, the seed might have come originally from the vicinity of Naples, since both species occur in southern Italy, D. sericea on hills near the coast, D. oleoides in the mountains farther inland, and possibly come into contact. However, as noted, Keissler agreed with Lindley that D. napolitana was not more than varietally distinct from D. collina. If, then, D. collina is to be sunk in D. sericea, D. napolitana would go with it.