Snowdrop
Encyclopedia
Galanthus is a small genus
of about 20 species
of bulb
ous herbaceous
plants
in the Amaryllis
family
, subfamily Amaryllidoideae. Most flower in winter, before the vernal equinox (21 March in the Northern Hemisphere
), but certain species flower in early spring
and late autumn
.
Snowdrops are sometimes confused with their relatives, snowflakes, which are Leucojum and Acis
species; see below.
Most other Galanthus species are from the eastern Mediterranean, though several are found in southern Russia, Georgia and Azerbaijan. Galanthus fosteri comes from Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Turkey and maybe Israel.
All species of Galanthus are perennial, herbaceous plants which grow from bulb
s. Each bulb generally produces just two or three linear leaves and an erect, leafless scape
(flowering stalk), which bears at the top a pair of bract-like spathe valves joined by a papery membrane. From between them emerges a solitary, pendulous, bell-shaped white flower, held on a slender pedicel
. The flower has no petals: it consists of six tepal
s, the outer three being larger and more convex than the inner series. The six anthers open by pores
or short slits. The ovary is three-celled, ripening into a three-celled capsule. Each whitish seed has a small, fleshy tail (elaiosome) containing substances attractive to ant
s which distribute the seeds. The leaves die back a few weeks after the flowers have faded.
The inner flower segments are usually marked with a green, or greenish-yellow, bridge-shaped mark over the small "sinus
" (notch) at the tip of each tepal.
An important feature which helps to distinguish between species (and to help to determine the parentage of hybrids) is their "vernation
" (the arrangement of the emerging leaves relative to each other). This can be "applanate", "supervolute" or "explicative". In applanate vernation the two leaf blades are pressed flat to each other within the bud and as they emerge; explicative leaves are also pressed flat against each other, but the edges of the leaves are folded back or sometimes rolled; in supervolute plants one leaf is tightly clasped around the other within the bud and generally remains at the point where the leaves emerge from the soil.
" to increase the stock of choice cultivars quickly.
that appears in Homer
's Odyssey
is actually snowdrop. An active substance in snowdrop is called galantamine
, which, as anticholinesterase, could have acted as an antidote to Circe
's poisons. Galantamine (or galanthamine) can be helpful in the treatment of Alzheimer's disease
, though it is not a cure; the substance also occurs naturally in daffodils and other narcissi.
(NGS) (see their website for up-to-date details).
There are a number of snowdrop gardens in England
, Scotland
, and Ireland
.
s", who hold meetings where the scarcer cultivars change hands. Double-flowered cultivars and forms, such as the extremely common Galanthus nivalis f. pleniflorus 'Flore Pleno', may be less attractive to some people but they can have greater visual impact in a garden setting.
A list of Irish cultivars can be found here http://www.snowdropinfo.com/irishsnowdrops.htm
s in the flower being the same size, though it should be noted that some "poculiform" (goblet- or cup-shaped) Galanthus can have inner segments similar in shape and length to the outer ones.
Genus
In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...
of about 20 species
Species
In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. While in many cases this definition is adequate, more precise or differing measures are...
of bulb
Bulb
A bulb is a short stem with fleshy leaves or leaf bases. The leaves often function as food storage organs during dormancy.A bulb's leaf bases, known as scales, generally do not support leaves, but contain food reserves to enable the plant to survive adverse conditions. At the center of the bulb is...
ous herbaceous
Herbaceous plant
A herbaceous plant is a plant that has leaves and stems that die down at the end of the growing season to the soil level. They have no persistent woody stem above ground...
plants
Flowering plant
The flowering plants , also known as Angiospermae or Magnoliophyta, are the most diverse group of land plants. Angiosperms are seed-producing plants like the gymnosperms and can be distinguished from the gymnosperms by a series of synapomorphies...
in the Amaryllis
Amaryllidaceae
Amaryllidoideae is the subfamily of flowering plants that takes its name from the genus Amaryllis. It is part of the family Amaryllidaceae, in order Asparagales...
family
Family (biology)
In biological classification, family is* a taxonomic rank. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, genus, and species, with family fitting between order and genus. As for the other well-known ranks, there is the option of an immediately lower rank, indicated by the...
, subfamily Amaryllidoideae. Most flower in winter, before the vernal equinox (21 March in the Northern Hemisphere
Northern Hemisphere
The Northern Hemisphere is the half of a planet that is north of its equator—the word hemisphere literally means “half sphere”. It is also that half of the celestial sphere north of the celestial equator...
), but certain species flower in early spring
Spring (season)
Spring is one of the four temperate seasons, the transition period between winter and summer. Spring and "springtime" refer to the season, and broadly to ideas of rebirth, renewal and regrowth. The specific definition of the exact timing of "spring" varies according to local climate, cultures and...
and late autumn
Autumn
Autumn is one of the four temperate seasons. Autumn marks the transition from summer into winter usually in September or March when the arrival of night becomes noticeably earlier....
.
Snowdrops are sometimes confused with their relatives, snowflakes, which are Leucojum and Acis
Acis (plant)
Acis is a genus of perennial, herbaceous and bulbous plants in the Amaryllis family . The genus consists in 9 species distributed in Europe and Northern Africa.The genus was reinstated in 2004, after it was determined on morphological and molecular grounds that these species should be segregated...
species; see below.
Distribution
Galanthus nivalis is the best-known and most widespread representative of the genus Galanthus. It is native to a large area of Europe, stretching from the Pyrenees in the west, through France and Germany to Poland in the north, Italy, Northern Greece, Ukraine, and European Turkey. It has been introduced and is widely naturalised elsewhere. Although it is often thought of as a British native wild flower, or to have been brought to the British Isles by the Romans, it was probably introduced around the early sixteenth century and is currently not a protected species in the UK.Most other Galanthus species are from the eastern Mediterranean, though several are found in southern Russia, Georgia and Azerbaijan. Galanthus fosteri comes from Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Turkey and maybe Israel.
Conservation
Some snowdrop species are threatened in their wild habitats, and in most countries it is now illegal to collect bulbs from the wild. Under CITES regulations, international trade in any quantity of Galanthus, whether bulbs, live plants or even dead ones, is illegal without a CITES permit. This applies to hybrids and named cultivars as well as species. CITES does, however, allow a limited trade in wild-collected bulbs of just three species (G. nivalis, G, elwesii and G. woronowii) from Turkey and Georgia.Description
Bulb
A bulb is a short stem with fleshy leaves or leaf bases. The leaves often function as food storage organs during dormancy.A bulb's leaf bases, known as scales, generally do not support leaves, but contain food reserves to enable the plant to survive adverse conditions. At the center of the bulb is...
s. Each bulb generally produces just two or three linear leaves and an erect, leafless scape
Scape (botany)
In botany, scapes are leafless flowering stems that rise from the ground. Scapes can have a single flower or many flowers, depending on the species....
(flowering stalk), which bears at the top a pair of bract-like spathe valves joined by a papery membrane. From between them emerges a solitary, pendulous, bell-shaped white flower, held on a slender pedicel
Pedicel (botany)
A pedicel is a stem that attaches single flowers to the main stem of the inflorescence. It is the branches or stalks that hold each flower in an inflorescence that contains more than one flower....
. The flower has no petals: it consists of six tepal
Tepal
Tepals are elements of the perianth, or outer part of a flower, which include the petals or sepals. The term tepal is more often applied specifically when all segments of the perianth are of similar shape and color, or undifferentiated, which is called perigone...
s, the outer three being larger and more convex than the inner series. The six anthers open by pores
Stoma
In botany, a stoma is a pore, found in the leaf and stem epidermis that is used forgas exchange. The pore is bordered by a pair of specialized parenchyma cells known as guard cells that are responsible for regulating the size of the opening...
or short slits. The ovary is three-celled, ripening into a three-celled capsule. Each whitish seed has a small, fleshy tail (elaiosome) containing substances attractive to ant
Ant
Ants are social insects of the family Formicidae and, along with the related wasps and bees, belong to the order Hymenoptera. Ants evolved from wasp-like ancestors in the mid-Cretaceous period between 110 and 130 million years ago and diversified after the rise of flowering plants. More than...
s which distribute the seeds. The leaves die back a few weeks after the flowers have faded.
The inner flower segments are usually marked with a green, or greenish-yellow, bridge-shaped mark over the small "sinus
Sinus (botany)
In botany, a sinus is a space or indentation, usually on a leaf, between two lobes or teeth that does not break the continuity of the structure....
" (notch) at the tip of each tepal.
An important feature which helps to distinguish between species (and to help to determine the parentage of hybrids) is their "vernation
Vernation
Vernation is the formation of new leaves or fronds. In plant anatomy, it is the arrangement of leaves in a bud....
" (the arrangement of the emerging leaves relative to each other). This can be "applanate", "supervolute" or "explicative". In applanate vernation the two leaf blades are pressed flat to each other within the bud and as they emerge; explicative leaves are also pressed flat against each other, but the edges of the leaves are folded back or sometimes rolled; in supervolute plants one leaf is tightly clasped around the other within the bud and generally remains at the point where the leaves emerge from the soil.
Propagation
Propagation is by offset bulbs, either by careful division of clumps in full growth ("in the green"), or removed when the plants are dormant, immediately after the leaves have withered; or by seeds sown either when ripe, or in spring. Professional growers and keen amateurs also use such methods as "twin-scalingTwin-scaling
Twin-scaling is a method of propagating plant bulbs that have a basal plate, such as:* Hippeastrum, Narcissus, Galanthus and other members of the Amaryllidaceae;* some members of the lily family Liliaceae;...
" to increase the stock of choice cultivars quickly.
Active substances
It was suggested by Duvoisin in 1983 that the mysterious magical herb molyMoly
Moly may refer to:*Moly , a magic herb in Greek mythology*Allium moly, a flowering plant*Chrome-moly steel and moly-steel, iron-based alloys with a substantial component of molybdenum...
that appears in Homer
Homer
In the Western classical tradition Homer , is the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, and is revered as the greatest ancient Greek epic poet. These epics lie at the beginning of the Western canon of literature, and have had an enormous influence on the history of literature.When he lived is...
's Odyssey
Odyssey
The Odyssey is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is, in part, a sequel to the Iliad, the other work ascribed to Homer. The poem is fundamental to the modern Western canon, and is the second—the Iliad being the first—extant work of Western literature...
is actually snowdrop. An active substance in snowdrop is called galantamine
Galantamine
Galantamine is used for the treatment of mild to moderate Alzheimer’s disease and various other memory impairments, in particular those of vascular origin...
, which, as anticholinesterase, could have acted as an antidote to Circe
Circe
In Greek mythology, Circe is a minor goddess of magic , described in Homer's Odyssey as "The loveliest of all immortals", living on the island of Aeaea, famous for her part in the adventures of Odysseus.By most accounts, Circe was the daughter of Helios, the god of the sun, and Perse, an Oceanid...
's poisons. Galantamine (or galanthamine) can be helpful in the treatment of Alzheimer's disease
Alzheimer's disease
Alzheimer's disease also known in medical literature as Alzheimer disease is the most common form of dementia. There is no cure for the disease, which worsens as it progresses, and eventually leads to death...
, though it is not a cure; the substance also occurs naturally in daffodils and other narcissi.
Snowdrop gardens
Celebrated as a sign of spring, snowdrops can form impressive carpets of white in areas where they are native or have been naturalised. These displays may attract large numbers of sightseers. Several gardens open specially in February for visitors to admire the flowers. Sixty gardens took part in Scotland's first Snowdrop Festival (1 Feb–11 March 2007). Several gardens in England open during snowdrop season for the National Gardens SchemeNational Gardens Scheme
The National Gardens Scheme, was founded in 1927 in England with the aim of "opening gardens of quality, character and interest to the public for charity". Originally, the money was raised to provide pension support for district nurses; 609 private gardens were opened and £8,191 was raised.Over...
(NGS) (see their website for up-to-date details).
There are a number of snowdrop gardens in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
, and Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
.
England
- Anglesey AbbeyAnglesey AbbeyAnglesey Abbey is a country house, formerly a priory, in the village of Lode, 5 ½ miles northeast of Cambridge, England. The house and its grounds are owned by the National Trust and are open to the public as part of the Anglesey Abbey, Garden & Lode Mill property, although some parts remain...
, LodeLodeIn geology, a lode is a deposit of metalliferous ore that fills or is embedded in a fissure in a rock formation or a vein of ore that is deposited or embedded between layers of rock....
, Cambridgeshire - Bank HallBank HallBank Hall is a Jacobean mansion south of the village of Bretherton in Lancashire, England. It is a Grade II* Listed Building. The hall was built on the site of a previous building in 1608 during the reign of James I by the Banastre family who were Lords of the Manor. It was extended during the 18th...
, BrethertonBrethertonBretherton is a small village and civil parish in the Borough of Chorley, Lancashire, England situated to the south west of Leyland and east of Tarleton. Its name suggests pre-conquest origins and its early history was closely involved with the manor house Bank Hall and the families who lived there...
, Lancashire - Benington Lordship, Hertfordshire
- Brandy Mount, New AlresfordNew AlresfordNew Alresford or simply Alresford is a small town and civil parish in the City of Winchester district of Hampshire, England. It is situated some 12 km north-east of the city of Winchester and 20 km south-west of the town of Alton...
, Hampshire (NCCPG National Plant CollectionNCCPG National Plant CollectionThe NCCPG National Plant Collection scheme is the main conservation vehicle whereby the National Council for the Conservation of Plants and Gardens can accomplish its mission: to conserve, grow, propagate, document and make available the resource of garden plants that exists in the United...
of Snowdrops) (NGS) - Chippenham Park, Newmarket, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire
- Colesbourne Park, Gloucestershire
- East Lambrook Manor, Somerset (NGS)
- Easton Lodge, near Little EastonLittle EastonLittle Easton is a small village in Essex, England, which dates from the 12th century. The village has a population of just a few hundred people, one pub, "The Stag", and one church...
, Essex - Easton Walled Gardens, near GranthamGranthamGrantham is a market town within the South Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England. It bestrides the East Coast Main Line railway , the historic A1 main north-south road, and the River Witham. Grantham is located approximately south of the city of Lincoln, and approximately east of Nottingham...
, Lincolnshire - Felley Priory, Nottinghamshire
- Hanwell Community Observatory, Banbury, Oxfordshire
- Hodsock PrioryHodsock PrioryHodsock Priory is an English country house in Nottinghamshire, north of Worksop, England and south of Blyth. Despite its name, it is not and never has been a priory. Hodsock is renowned for its snowdrops in early spring.-History:...
, Nottinghamshire - Ickworth House, Park and Gardens, Horringer, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk
- Kingston Lacey, Dorset
- Moggerhanger HouseMoggerhanger HouseMoggerhanger House is a Grade I listed country house in Moggerhanger, Bedfordshire, England, designed by the eminent architect John Soane. The house is owned by a Christian charity, Harvest Vision, and the Moggerhanger House Preservation Trust, and has recently undergone a £6m refurbishment...
, Bedfordshire - PainswickPainswickPainswick is a small town in Gloucestershire, England. Originally the town grew on the wool trade, but it is now best known for its parish church's yew trees and the local Rococo Garden. The town is mainly constructed of locally quarried Cotswold stone...
Rococo Gardens, Gloucestershire - Pembury House, Clayton, West Sussex (NGS)
- Rodmarton ManorRodmarton ManorRodmarton Manor is a large country house, in Rodmarton, near Cirencester, Gloucestershire, built for the Biddulph family. It is a Grade I listed building. It was constructed in 1909-1929 in an Arts and Crafts style, to a design by Ernest Barnsley. After Barnsley's death in 1925, it was completed by...
, Gloucestershire - WalsinghamWalsinghamWalsingham is a village in the English county of Norfolk. The village is famed for its religious shrines in honour of the Virgin Mary and as a major pilgrimage centre...
, Norfolk - Welford ParkWelford ParkWelford Park is a country house and estate in the village of Welford, near the town of Newbury in the English county of Berkshire. Whilst of some historical significance, the estate is perhaps best known for its displays of Snowdrops in early Spring....
, Newbury, Berkshire
Ireland
- Mark Smyth's Garden in AntrimCounty AntrimCounty Antrim is one of six counties that form Northern Ireland, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland. Adjoined to the north-east shore of Lough Neagh, the county covers an area of 2,844 km², with a population of approximately 616,000...
- Primrose Hill, Lucan, County Dublin, Ireland
- Altamont Garden,Tullow,County Carlow http://www.carlowgardentrail.com/altamont.htmhttp://www.altamontgarden.com/
Species
Notable species include:- Common snowdrop, Galanthus nivalisGalanthus nivalisOften referred to as the common snowdrop, Galanthus nivalis is the best-known and most widespread representative of a small genus of about 20 species...
, grows to around 7–15 cm tall, flowering between January and April in the northern temperate zone (January–May in the wild). Applanate vernation - Crimean snowdrop, Galanthus plicatus, 30 cm tall, flowering January/March, white flowers, with broad leaves folded back at the edges (explicative vernation)
- Giant snowdrop, Galanthus elwesii, a native of the LevantLevantThe Levant or ) is the geographic region and culture zone of the "eastern Mediterranean littoral between Anatolia and Egypt" . The Levant includes most of modern Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Israel, the Palestinian territories, and sometimes parts of Turkey and Iraq, and corresponds roughly to the...
, 23 cm tall, flowering January/February, with large flowers, the three inner segments of which often have a much larger and more conspicuous green blotch (or blotches) than the more common kinds; supervolute vernation - Galanthus reginae-olgae, from GreeceGreeceGreece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
and SicilySicilySicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...
, is quite similar in appearance to G. nivalis, but flowers in autumn before the leaves appear. The leaves, which appear in the spring, have a characteristic white stripe on their upper side; applanate vernation- subsp. vernalis, from Sicily, northern Greece and the south of former Yugoslavia, blooms at the end of the winter with developed young leaves and is thus easily confused with G. nivalis.
Cultivars
There are numerous single- and double-flowered cultivars of Galanthus nivalis, and also of several other Galanthus species, particularly G. plicatus and G. elwesii. There are also many hybrids between these and other species (there are more than 500 cultivars described in Bishop, Davis & Grimshaw's book, plus lists of many cultivars that have now been lost, and others not seen by the authors). They differ particularly in the size, shape and markings of the flower, the period of flowering, and other characteristics, mainly of interest to the keen (even fanatical) snowdrop collectors, known as "galanthophileGalanthophile
A galanthophile is an enthusiastic collector of snowdrops .The term galanthophile was probably invented by the noted British plantsman and garden writer E. A. Bowles in a letter to his friend Oliver Wyatt, another keen collector of bulbs, whom he addressed as "Dear Galanthophil"...
s", who hold meetings where the scarcer cultivars change hands. Double-flowered cultivars and forms, such as the extremely common Galanthus nivalis f. pleniflorus 'Flore Pleno', may be less attractive to some people but they can have greater visual impact in a garden setting.
A list of Irish cultivars can be found here http://www.snowdropinfo.com/irishsnowdrops.htm
Similar genera
Snowdrops are sometimes confused with their relatives, snowflakes, Leucojum and Acis species. Leucojums are much larger and flower in spring (or early summer, depending on the species), with all six tepalTepal
Tepals are elements of the perianth, or outer part of a flower, which include the petals or sepals. The term tepal is more often applied specifically when all segments of the perianth are of similar shape and color, or undifferentiated, which is called perigone...
s in the flower being the same size, though it should be noted that some "poculiform" (goblet- or cup-shaped) Galanthus can have inner segments similar in shape and length to the outer ones.
Media
- William WordsworthWilliam WordsworthWilliam Wordsworth was a major English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature with the 1798 joint publication Lyrical Ballads....
, the Two-Part Ballad: "I began / My story early, feeling, as I fear, / The weakness of a human love for days / Disowned by memory, ere the birth of spring / Planting my snowdrops among winter snows" (ll. 445-59). - Snowdrops feature in Seamus HeaneySeamus HeaneySeamus Heaney is an Irish poet, writer and lecturer. He lives in Dublin. Heaney has received the Nobel Prize in Literature , the Golden Wreath of Poetry , T. S. Eliot Prize and two Whitbread prizes...
's poem Mid-term Break in the context of mourning a dead infant - "Snowdrop" is the subtitle of P. I. Tchaikovsky's piano piece, "April," in the piano cycle "The SeasonsThe Seasons (Tchaikovsky)The Seasons, Op. 37a is a set of twelve short character pieces for solo piano by the Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Each piece is the characteristic of a different month of the year in the northern hemisphere. The work is also sometimes heard in orchestral and other arrangements by...
". The cycle contains 12 pieces, each is given the name of the month and a characteristic subtitle. - In Neil GaimanNeil GaimanNeil Richard Gaiman born 10 November 1960)is an English author of short fiction, novels, comic books, graphic novels, audio theatre and films. His notable works include the comic book series The Sandman and novels Stardust, American Gods, Coraline, and The Graveyard Book...
's novel StardustStardust (novel)Stardust is the first solo prose novel by Neil Gaiman. It is usually published as a novel with illustrations by Charles Vess. Stardust has a different tone and style from most of Gaiman's prose fiction, being consciously written in the tradition of pre-Tolkien English fantasy, following in the...
, Dunstan Thorn and subsequently his son Tristran carry a glass snowdrop that chimes when held. The flower has a very small, but pivotal role in the story - In the anime film Twelve Months (Sekai meisaku dowa mori wa ikiteiru in Japan), a greedy queen decrees that a basket of gold coins shall be rewarded to anyone who can bring her galanthus flowers in the dead of winter. A young girl named Anya is sent out during a snow storm by her cruel stepmother and find the spirits of the 12 months of the year, who take pity on her and not only save her from freezing to death, but make it possible for her to gather the flowers even in winter
- In the manga "Snow DropSnow Drop"Snow Drop" is the fourteenth single by L'Arc-en-Ciel, released on October 7, 1998 it debuted at number 1 on the Oricon chart. The single was re-released on August 30, 2006. The song was used as the theme song to the TV drama Hashire Kōmuin!....
" by Choi kyung-ahChoi Kyung-ahChoi Kyung-ah is a South Korean manhwa artist. Her popular series Snow Drop is a story about star-crossed teenagers So-na and Hae-gi who fall madly in love. She is married and has a son.- Works :* Snow Drop * Bibi...
, Snow Drop was the name of the book that Yo So-Na's mother wrote. The name of the four characters in the manga was taken from that book: So-na, Hae-gi, Ko-mo, Gae-Ri. In this manga, snowdrop represented hope and warmth, because of the legend it carries in Korea - "Snowdrops" was the nickname that the British people gave during the Second World WarWorld War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
to the military policeMilitary policeMilitary police are police organisations connected with, or part of, the military of a state. The word can have different meanings in different countries, and may refer to:...
of the United StatesUnited StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
Army (who were stationed in the UK preparatory to the invasion of the continent) because they wore a white helmet, gloves, gaiters, and Sam Browne beltSam Browne beltThe Sam Browne belt is a wide belt, usually leather, which is supported by a strap going diagonally over the right shoulder. It is most often seen as part of a military or police uniform.-Origins:...
against their olive drab uniform - In Jacqueline CareyJacqueline CareyJacqueline Carey is an author and novelist, primarily of fantasy fiction.-Life:She attended Lake Forest College, receiving B.A.'s in psychology and English literature. During college, she spent 6 months working in a bookstore in London as part of a work exchange program. While there, she decided...
's series of novels set in Terre d'Ange, snowdrops are distilled to create a beverage called joie that is drunk on the Longest Night (New Year's Eve). In Naamah's Kiss, one of the characters makes a tonic from snowdrops that acts as an aphrodisiac, and the protagonist Moirin takes snowdrops from Terre d'Ange (based on France) and plants them in a mountain in Ch'in (based on China). - The short story The Snowdrop by Hans Christian AndersenHans Christian AndersenHans Christian Andersen was a Danish author, fairy tale writer, and poet noted for his children's stories. These include "The Steadfast Tin Soldier," "The Snow Queen," "The Little Mermaid," "Thumbelina," "The Little Match Girl," and "The Ugly Duckling."...
follows the fate of a snowdrop from a bulb striving towards the light to a picked flower placed in a book of poetry. The poet, Ambrosius StubAmbrosius StubAmbrosius Christoffersen Stub was a Danish poet.- Life :Stub was born in Gummerup on the island of Funen, but his exact birth date is unknown. He was baptized at Verninge on May 17, 1705. The son of a tailor, he was able to attend the Latin school of Odense due to the generosity of noblemen who...
, is compared to the flower—as a summer gauk (fool), born before his time. - In the anime and manga series, "Shinkyoku Soukai Polyphonica," the White Series' protagonist is named "Snow Drop"
Further reading
- Aaron P Davis, The Genus Galanthus, A Botanical Magazine Monograph. Timber Press, Portland, Oregon (in association with the Royal Botanic Gardens, KewRoyal Botanic Gardens, KewThe Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, usually referred to as Kew Gardens, is 121 hectares of gardens and botanical glasshouses between Richmond and Kew in southwest London, England. "The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew" and the brand name "Kew" are also used as umbrella terms for the institution that runs...
) ISBN 0-88192-431-8 - Matt Bishop, Aaron Davis, John Grimshaw, SNOWDROPS A Monograph of Cultivated Galanthus, Griffin Press, January 2002 (ISBN 0-9541916-0-9)
- Gvaladze GE, Ultrastructural study of Embryo Sac of Galanthus nivalis L. in: Fertilization and embryogenesis, Bratislava, 1983
- Gvaladze GE, Akhalkatsi MSh, Ultrastructure of autumn and spring Embryo Sac of Galanthus nivalis L. in Annales Scientifiques de l'Universite de Reims Champagne-Ardenne et de l'A.R.E.R.S., 1988, Numero 23
- Stern F C, Snowdrops and Snowflakes – A study of the Genera Galanthus and Leucojum, The Royal Horticultural SocietyRoyal Horticultural SocietyThe Royal Horticultural Society was founded in 1804 in London, England as the Horticultural Society of London, and gained its present name in a Royal Charter granted in 1861 by Prince Albert...
, 1956