Looking at snowdrops
Most people, if they think about snowdrops at all, believe that a snowdrop is a snowdrop is a snowdrop, and most of the time, if what they believe is that there is one unvarying snowdrop, they would be right. What they have in mind is the Common Snowdrop, Galanthus nivalis, in its commonest form. But being right most of the time is not the same as being right all of the time, and between the two there is a fascinating world largely unexplored even by experienced gardeners. So fascinating is that world that it has engendered a cult, galanthophilia, a shared passion for the many snowdrops that are not the Common Snowdrop in its commonest form.
If you live, as we do, where winters are cold and spring is only now getting underway, now is the moment to take a close look at the snowdrops in your garden, in other people’s gardens and in the wild if you can find them. None is native to North America, so if you do find it in uncultivated woodlots, they are either garden escapees, or planted. Within your own garden, perhaps inherited, perhaps neglected, perhaps lovingly tended, there are likely to be some snowdrops, and now is the moment to test whether a snowdrop is merely a snowdrop.
Here is what you need, and what you need to know. Because snowdrops are typically a long way from your eyes when you are standing, it’s useful to be able to detect, without bending or kneeling, whether the plant at which you are looking might be of particular interest. For that, field-glasses are essential. If you then decide it’s worth investigating the plant from close range, that you really need to kneel, then a rug or towel is useful in conserving your knees or protecting your trousers. Once you are down, you need to know what you are looking for.
For that, it’s important to know a little about the structure of a snowdrop. What are the critical parts that distinguish one from another? Let’s begin with the leaves. Typically there are two, and they come mostly in two different formations. They will either be resting flat against each other (the term is applanate), or one of the leaves will be initially wrapped around the other as they emerge from the soil (supervolute). If it’s the latter, you’re off and running as a galanthophile; it isn’t a Common Snowdrop. The leaves will differ in other ways, in size, shape, and colour (lively green, dull green, glaucous), with each of these features providing additional information as to what it is that is growing in your garden.
Growing vertically between the leaves is the scape with the flower bud at its tip. The bud is enclosed by a spathe which, as the flower begins to open, stretches out like two adjoined fingers, linked by a membrane. The two fingers may vary in length, another source of differentiation. The bud opens into flower, between the fingers, on a thin, flexible stem, the pedicel; it, too can vary in length. Both pedicels and spathes are easily seen in the photo below.
Now we get to the really exciting part; the flowers. They are composed of two circles – inner and outer – of white petals (they’re actually perianth segments, but that’s another story). The outer petals are typically unmarked, but may vary in shape and size, while the inner provide a wonderful range of green, occasionally yellow, markings. There is usually a small notch at the top of the petal (remember that the ‘top’ of the flower is its lowest part), and in the vast majority of snowdrops that notch will be embraced by a green horseshoe. In the commonest of Common Snowdrops the horseshoe will be small, but it may also extend across much of the inner petal.
The two most frequently encountered species of snowdrop are Galanthus nivalis, which comes in a single and a double form, ‘Flore Pleno’, with three to five outer petals and as many as seven to fifteen inner, and Galanthus elwesii, whose leaves are supervolute and whose inner petals frequently have more than the horseshoe (though, just to keep you on your knees, the presence of more than the horseshoe is consistent with other species, of which there are 18). Here is a sample of some snowdrops at Lilactree Farm.
Brian Bixley is a garden writer (Minding The Garden: Lilactree Farm),and gardener with his wife Maureen at Lilactree Farm, which welcomes visitors during tours, Open Garden days, and by arrangement. Contact lilactreefarm@gmail.com.
