A small, nodding white bulb that flowers through frozen ground in late winter, the earliest sign of returning spring in much of Europe.
Where it grows
Wild snowdrops carpet damp deciduous woodland and shaded streamsides across Europe from the Pyrenees and the Alps east to the Caucasus and Caspian. They have long been planted in graveyards and country estates in Britain, where they appear naturalised but are technically introductions.
How to recognise it
Two slender grey-green leaves emerge with the flower stem from each underground bulb. The bloom hangs from a thread-like pedicel and has three large outer tepals and three shorter inner tepals tipped with a green inverted-V mark. The flower closes against cold and opens in sun.
Garden & cultural uses
A subculture of obsessive collectors — galanthophiles — pay hundreds of pounds for rare cultivars distinguished by tiny variations in green markings. The bulbs also contain galantamine, the same alkaloid extracted from daffodils for Alzheimer’s treatment.
In symbolism
In Christian folklore the snowdrop became the flower of Candlemas and the consolation of Eve after she was driven from Eden. Across central Europe it remains a strict harbinger of the end of winter.
Find more flowers by letter
Snowdrop starts with S and ends with P. Browse other flowers along the same letter.
Flowers that contain a letter from "Snowdrop":