Galanthus

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Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1]

Overview

Galanthus (snowdrop; Greek gála "milk", ánthos "flower") is a small genus of about 20 species of bulbous herbaceous perennials in the Amaryllis family. Most flower in winter, before the vernal equinox (20 or 21 March in the Northern Hemisphere), but certain species flower in early spring and late autumn.

Snowdrops are sometimes confused with the two related genera within Galantheae, snowflakes Leucojum and Acis.

Description

All species of Galanthus are perennial, herbaceous plants which grow from bulbs. 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 tepals, 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 ants 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.

Notable species include:

• Common snowdrop, Galanthus nivalis, 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 Levant, 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 Greece and Sicily, 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
  • G. reginae-olgae subsp. vernalis, from Sicily, northern Greece and the southern part of former Yugoslavia, blooms at the end of the winter with developed young leaves and is thus easily confused with G. nivalis.

Taxonomy

The genus was created by Carl Linnaeus in 1753, based on the type species Galanthus nivalis. Galanthus is from the Greek gala, meaning "milk", and anthos, meaning "flower", alluding to the colour of the flowers. The epithet nivalis means "of the snow".

Similar genera

Snowdrops are sometimes confused with the two related genera that constitute the Galantheae, snowflakes or Leucojum and Acis . Leucojum are much larger and flower in spring (or early summer, depending on the species), with all six tepals in the flower being the same size, though some "poculiform" (goblet- or cup-shaped) Galanthus can have inner segments similar in shape and length to the outer ones.

Species

As of February 2012, the World Checklist of Selected Plant Families recognises 19 species. A 20th species, Galanthus panjutinii (Panjutin's snowdrop), was recognised during 2012. Discovered in five locations in a small area (estimated at 20 km²) of the northern Colchis area (western Transcaucasus) of Georgia and Russia, it is classed as Endangered. One of its five known sites, at Sochi, was destroyed by preparations for the 2014 Winter Olympics.

• Galanthus alpinus Sosn. - Turkey, Caucasus
• Galanthus angustifolius Koss - Caucasus
• Galanthus cilicicus Baker - Turkey
• Galanthus elwesii Hook.f. - Greece, Balkans, Ukraine, Turkey
• Galanthus fosteri Baker - Turkey, Syria, Jordan
• Galanthus gracilis Celak. - Greece, Balkans, Ukraine, Turkey
• Galanthus ikariae Baker - Aegean Islands (Andros, Ikaria, Naxos, Skyros)
• Galanthus koenenianus Lobin - Turkey
• Galanthus krasnovii Khokhr. - Turkey, Caucasus
• Galanthus lagodechianus Kem.-Nath. - Caucasus
• Galanthus nivalis L. - southern + central Europe from Pyrenees to Ukraine
• Galanthus panjutinii Zubov & A.P.Davis - Caucasus
• Galanthus peshmenii A.P.Davis & C.D.Brickell - southwestern Turkey, Greek Island of Kastellorizo (Megisti)
• Galanthus platyphyllus Traub & Moldenke - Caucasus
• Galanthus plicatus M.Bieb. - Caucasus, Turkey, Ukraine, Crimea, Romania
• Galanthus reginae-olgae Orph. - Greece, Sicily, Balkans
• Galanthus rizehensis Stern - Turkey, Caucasus
• Galanthus transcaucasicus Fomin - Iran, Caucasus
• Galanthus trojanus A.P.Davis & Özhatay - Turkey
• Galanthus woronowii Losinsk. - Turkey, Caucasus

Distribution and habitat

The genus Galanthus is native to Europe and the Middle East, from Spain, France and Germany in the west through to Iran in the east. It has become naturalized in other parts of Europe – Norway, Sweden, Great Britain, Belgium and the Netherlands – as well as in eastern Canada and the United States.

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, Bulgaria, Romania, 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, Armenia 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.

Cultivation

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. There are a number of snowdrop gardens in England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland. 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 Scheme (NGS) and in Scotland for Scotland's Gardens.

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 "galanthophiles", 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.

The following species and cultivars have gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit:-

G. 'Atkinsii' G. elwesii G. elwesii var. monostictus G. 'Magnet' G. nivalis

G. nivalis f. pleniflorus 'Flore Pleno' G. plicatus G. 'S. Arnott' G. woronowii

A list of Irish cultivars can be found here [2]

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-scaling" to increase the stock of choice cultivars quickly.

Active substances

It was suggested by Andreas Plaitakis and Roger Duvoisin in 1983 that the mysterious magical herb moly 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.

Snowdrops contain also an active lectin or agglutinin named GNA for Galanthus nivalis agglutinin.

In 1995 Árpád Pusztai genetically modified potatoes with the GNA gene, which work he discussed on a radio interview in 1998 and published in the Lancet in 1999. In 1998 said in an interview on a World in Action programme that his group had observed damage to the intestines and immune systems of rats fed the genetically modified potatoes. He also said "If I had the choice I would certainly not eat it", and that "I find it's very unfair to use our fellow citizens as guinea pigs". These remarks started the so-called Pusztai affair.

In popular culture

• In the fairy-tale play The Twelve Months by Russian writer Samuil Marshak, 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 orphan Girl 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. The Soviet traditionally animated film The Twelve Months (1956), Lenfilm film The Twelve Months (1972) and the anime film Twelve Months (1980) (Sekai meisaku dowa mori wa ikiteiru in Japan) are based on this fairy-tale play.
• "Snowdrops" was the nickname that the British people gave during the Second World War to the military police of the United States 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 belt against their olive drab uniform
• The short story The Snowdrop by Hans Christian Andersen follows the fate of a snowdrop from a bulb striving towards the light to a picked flower placed in a book of poetry.
• In Stardust, a glass snowdrop is given to Dunstan for a kiss by Una. It's later used to protect Tristan from the magic of Lamia.
• In the musical Kiss Me, Kate by Cole Porter (1948) the character Lilli/Katherine is deeply pleased at receiving a pre-opening night performance bouquet of "pansies, snowdrops, and rosemary. Our wedding bouquet," from her ex, Fred/Patruchio. But--the bouquet was meant for the younger, ingenue lead, Lois/Bianca.

See also

• List of early spring flowers
• Galantamine

References

Bibliography

• Matt Bishop, Aaron Davis, John Grimshaw (2002). Snowdrops: a Monograph of Cultivated Galanthus. Griffin Press. ISBN 0-9541916-0-9.CS1 maint: Multiple names: authors list (link)
• Aaron Davis (1999). The genus Galanthus. A Botanical Magazine monograph. Portland, Oregon: Timber Press. ISBN 0-88192-431-8.
• Snowdrops falling slowly into place: An improved phylogeny for Galanthus (Amaryllidaceae).Nina Rønsted, Dimitri Zubov, Sam Bruun-Lund, Aaron P. Davis. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution Volume 69, Issue 1, October 2013, Pages 205–217

Further reading

• F. C. Stern (1956). Snowdrops and Snowflakes – a study of the genera Galanthus and Leucojum. Royal Horticultural Society.

External links

• Denise Winterman (February 2, 2012). "Snowdrop fanciers and their mania". BBC News.
• National Gardens Scheme website