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Daffodil: toxicity, first aid and care

Daffodil (Narcissus spp.): toxic for cats, toxic for dogs, toxic for small children. The toxic principle, the signs, what to do, and how to grow it.

Cats: ToxicDogs: ToxicChildren: Toxic

Also sold as: Narcissus, jonquil, paperwhite, nartsiss, narsissi.

This is a reference table, not a diagnosis and not veterinary or medical advice. It cannot tell you how much of a plant matters for a particular child or a particular animal — that depends on body weight, on the part eaten and on how long ago. If a person or an animal has eaten part of a plant, phone the poison information centre or a clinician; do not wait for symptoms, and do not make anyone vomit unless you are told to.

What is in it

Toxic principle: Lycorine alkaloids plus calcium oxalate raphides — Alkaloids and other systemic poisons.

Two mechanisms stacked. Lycorine in the bulb triggers severe vomiting; oxalate crystals in the sap and bulb skin irritate mouth and skin directly. The bulb holds far more than the flower, and forced indoor bulbs — paperwhites and pot narcissi in midwinter — put the bulb at nose height indoors.

What it looks like when it goes wrong

Heavy drooling and vomiting, abdominal pain, diarrhoea; in a large bulb ingestion, tremors, a disturbed heart rhythm and low blood pressure. In people who handle the stems all day, the itchy scaly rash of "daffodil picker's hand".

What to do

Phone a veterinary clinic or the poison centre. Bulb ingestion is the version that needs to be seen; a chewed flower usually is not. Keep bulbs in a closed box, not an open bowl in the porch, over the planting season.

Anywhere in the European Union, 112 reaches emergency services and can put you through. Lithuania's poison information bureau (Apsinuodijimų kontrolės ir informacijos biuras) publishes its own round-the-clock line; if you do not have it to hand, use 112. For an animal, your own veterinary clinic or its out-of-hours service is the first call — human poison centres do not advise on animals in every country.

How to grow it

Plant in September or October at three times the bulb's depth and leave them; they naturalise readily in grass across the region. The one rule that matters is not to cut or tie the leaves after flowering — they must be left for at least six weeks to rebuild the bulb, which is why a mown lawn full of daffodils flowers worse each year.

What it gets confused with

Daffodil bulbs have repeatedly been mistaken for onions or shallots in the kitchen — they are stored in the same shed, in the same net bags, at the same time of year. Keep them nowhere near food. Cut daffodils also release sap that shortens the life of other flowers in a mixed vase; condition them alone in water for a few hours first.

A plant that is not on the toxic lists

If you are deciding what to keep in a home with a cat, a dog or a small child, this one fills a similar role and is not flagged by the veterinary services.

Others that work the same way

Alkaloids and other systemic poisons — these behave alike, and what you would do about them is alike too.

Source: ASPCA Animal Poison Control — toxic and non-toxic plants · checked 2026-09-06

Care guidance is standard horticultural practice for a cool-temperate northern climate. Poison-centre numbers are listed on the hub page and are worth confirming against your own country's health service.

Frequently asked questions

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