The flower is extremely fragrant, with a ring of tepals in pure white and a short corona of light yellow with a distinct reddish edge.

[7][8] Narcissus poeticus is native to central and southern Europe from Spain, France through Switzerland, Austria to Croatia, Albania,[9] Greece and Ukraine.

[10] It is naturalised in Great Britain, Belgium, Germany, the Czech Republic, Azerbaijan, Turkey, New Zealand, British Columbia, Washington state, Oregon, Ontario, Quebec, Newfoundland, and much of the eastern United States,[11][12][13] from Louisiana and Georgia north to Maine and Wisconsin.

[16] According to Theophrastus, the narcissus (νάρκισσος), also called leirion (λείριον), has a leafless stem, with the flower at the top.

[19][20][21] The fragrant Narcissus poeticus has also been recognised as the flower that Persephone and her companions were gathering when Hades abducted her into the Underworld, according to Hellmut Baumann in The Greek Plant World in Myth, Art, and Literature.

[22] Linnaeus, who gave the flower its name, quite possibly did so because he believed it was the one that inspired the tale of Narcissus, handed down by poets since ancient times.

It may be the "sweet white narcissus" that Peter Collinson sent John Bartram in Philadelphia, only to be told that it was already common in Pennsylvania, having spread from its introduction by early settlers.