SNOW- - 2012

Snowdrop Galanthus nivalis L., Daffodil family (Amaryllidaceae) Native wild species protected by law German: Schneeglöckchen French: Perce-neige Italian: Bucaneve Snowdrop is a perennial plant 10-15 cm high, with an oval bulb 1.5 cm in diameter. The stems are solitary; they grow sparsely, two from one bulb. Linear leaves are in blooming time up to 10 cm long and only about 0.5 cm wide. Faintly scented flowers are solitary and hanging, shiny-white in colour. The perianth consists of two circles, each with three free leaves (“petals“): the three spread outer ones are longer than the three shrunken inner ones that are greenish toward the top. The snowdrop is the earliest blooming spring flower, blooming already beneath snow, from the end of February to the beginning of April. Its fruit is a yellow-green capsule with several light seeds, dispersed by ants. It grows in deciduous, mixed and evergreen forests throughout Europe, from flooded plains to pre-mountain areas on moist, rich and light soils. Because of too frequent picking, all European populations of snowdrops have dangerously shrunk and therefore the species is today everywhere protected by law. How endangered and rare it has become tells us also the fact that based on CITES regulative the trade in this endangered species has become strongly forbidden. By the scientific name of its family (Greek: gala=milk and anthos=flower) and species (Latin: nivalis=snow-white) the snowdrop is entirely in the sign of white colour. Today, it is considered that the strange plant from the Homer’s Odyssey was just the snowdrop. It symbolises the arrival of spring and awakening of new life, and is often grown also in gardens and in pots. Since ancient times very popular culture, snowdrops have had a number of cultivars: the enthusiasts and collectors of snowdrops are so numerous that they found associations and call themselves “galantophiles”.