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Snowdrop Identification

This document provides a guide to identifying different species and varieties of snowdrop flowers based on four key characteristics: leaf width, leaf color, leaf base shape, and petal markings. It describes the distinguishing features of common snowdrop types like Galanthus nivalis, G. woronowii, G. ikariae, G. elwesii, G. plicatus, and their hybrids. Identification tips are accompanied by photographs to illustrate differences in morphological traits.

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887 views7 pages

Snowdrop Identification

This document provides a guide to identifying different species and varieties of snowdrop flowers based on four key characteristics: leaf width, leaf color, leaf base shape, and petal markings. It describes the distinguishing features of common snowdrop types like Galanthus nivalis, G. woronowii, G. ikariae, G. elwesii, G. plicatus, and their hybrids. Identification tips are accompanied by photographs to illustrate differences in morphological traits.

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MaraRaduta
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Spring Snowdrop Identification:

M.J. Crawley, 2010


There are just four key points
Leaf width (narrow or broad; use your little finger nail as a ruler)
Leaf colour (blue grey or bright grass green)
Leaf base (wrap-around or flat-facing)
Petal mark (mouth, base, both or solid)
1) Leaf width
Narrow (width less than a little finger nail) is Galanthus nivalis
Broader than a little finger nail is the rest. Hybrids are intermediate
2) Leaf colour

Greyish blue-green (the norm, as in the narrow-leaved G. nivalis, left); bright grass
green (as in G. woronowii (right) and rarely G. ikariae)
3) Leaf base
This is taxonomically the most distinctive feature. Most species have the two leaves
from each bulb flat and facing each other like hands in prayer (applanate, as in G.
plicatus, right below). In G. elwesii and its hybrids the base of the outer leaf wraps
around and embraces the interior leaf (supervolute or convolute, left below)

4) Petal marks
The normal pattern is a single green mark at the open end (the mouth or apex) of the
inner petals. This is typically U-shaped or V-shaped, but a fantastic range of curious
patterns is observed. This is what Galanthophiles get really excited about.

In the top left panel you see a faint green mark on the outer petals (a rare feature).
Bottom right is what Galanthophiles call Sad Face. Other shapes resemble scissors,
others chromosomes, others boxer shorts, and so on.

5) Double flowers
You will often find clumps of double flowers (G. nivalis Flore Pleno) which look like
Victorian lampshades, growing amongst swathes of common snowdrop (G. nivalis).

Other doubles have been bred intentionally. G. Titania (below left) has green on the
outside of the inner petals. These Greatorex hybrids typically involve G. plicatus as
the female parent, with pollen from G. nivalis Flore Pleno, and are named after
female characters from Shakespeare. G. Blewbury Tart looks upwards (below right)

6) Snowdrops with grass green leaves


These are infrequent, but of the two species, G. waronowii (below left) is much the
most likely to be found, and has a pale green mark reminiscent of a chromosome. G.
ikariae (below right) has a dark green mark like a pair of boxer shorts

7) Commonly found hybrids of G. nivalis


The two most distinctive cultivars of common snowdrop are G. Magnet (below left,
with a clear V mark) and G. Atkinsii (below right, with a broad U mark). The first
has noticeably big flowers with a very long pedicel. The second has long, narrow,
droopy outer petals.

8) Variation in marking within G. elwesii and G. plicatus

Notice the hooded leaf tips in G. elwesii (above left). The X-pattern (right) is the most
frequently seen mark in G. elwesii. A single apical spot is characteristic of G. elwesii
var. monostictus (below, left), and a single apical mark is the norm in G. plicatus
(below, right).

G. plicatus subsp. byzantinus has two spots (below, left) and is told from typical G.
elwesii (below, right) by its flat (not wrapped) leaves with longitudinal folds and inrolled margins.

9) Flowers with yellow markings


These are rare, but many are derived from the Northumbrian G. Sandersii group (left,
below). Some of the most sought-after cultivars are golden as in G. Wendys Gold
(right, below)

10) Oddities and rarities

One of the most sought-after species by hard-core Galanthophiles is G. lagodechianus

Undistinguished on the outside (left), but the markings of long and short lines inside
the inner petals are distinctive.

Key to the common British spring-flowering snowdrops

1. Leaves blue grey-green (the typical colour)


1. Leaves bright grass green (uncommon)

2
5

2. Leaves narrow (less than 6 mm)


2. Leaves broad (more than 9 mm)

3
4

3. Flowers single
3. Flowers double

G. nivalis
G. nivalis Flore Pleno

4. Leaf bases wrapped, leaves smooth, hood-tipped


4. Leaf bases flatly opposed, folded length-wise (plicate)

G. elwesii
G. plicatus

5. Inner petals with a light green V mark


5. Inner petals with a dark green mark like boxer shorts (rare)

G. woronowii
G. ikariae

Hybrids between G. nivalis and both G. plicatus and G. elwesii are frequent, and tend
to be intermediate in leaf size and shape and in the degree of wrap-around. Many of
the garden cultivars are of hybrid origin, and are difficult or impossible to name with
certainty. If in doubt, record these as close to the dominant parental species, which
will most often be G. nivalis.
The two common broad-leaved species are further divided on the basis of whether or
not they have green spots at both the apex and the base:
G. plicatus
Green spot at apex only
Green spots at both apex and base

G. plicatus subsp. plicatus


G. plicatus subsp. byzantinus

G. elwesii
Green spots at both apex and base (or X or solid green)
Green spot at apex only

G. elwesii
G. elwesii var. monostictus

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