Viruses Infecting Narcissus tazetta and Their Possible Management

Narcissus tazetta L. is a bulbous ornamental plant which belongs to the family Amaryllidaceae. It is popular for its sweet-smelling beautiful flowers and is also used for the production of fragrant oil and perfumes in India. Narcissus is also the source of alkaloids like lycorine, homolycorine, and galantamine used as traditional medicines for a variety of complaints. Narcissus is a commercially important ornamental plant; therefore, it is important to maintain its quality and quantity. Various groups of phytopathogens (fungi, bacteria, viruses, nematodes, and mites) affecting narcissus are of great concern as they caused loss of economic value at commercial cultivation. These pathogens may be controlled by chemicals except viruses. Viruses cause economic losses of narcissus in terms of reduction in bulb size, the number of bulbs, and the quality of narcissus flowers. In this review, we will describe about narcissus plant, type of virus disease, virus detection, characterization, and their possible management.