GREEN SNOWDROP

Galanthus woronowii

(Formerly: Galanthus ikariae)
Onion & Garlic Family [Alliaceae]  
Formerly in: Lily Family [Liliaceae]

month8jan month8feb month8mar month8march

status
statusZneophyte
 		 flower
flower8white
 		 inner
inner8green
 		 morph
morph8actino
 		 petals
petalsZ3 petalsZ6 petalsZ3+3
(3 + 3)		 stem
stem8round
 		 toxicity
toxicityZlowish
 

10th March 2009, wooded glade, Porter Brook, Sheffield. Photo: © RWD
Flowering in the first 3 months, white flowers drooping down, leaves broad and bright green. (Ignore longer greyish green leaves in background). No hint of greyish-green leaves of other Snowdrops.


10th March 2009, wooded glade, Porter Brook, Sheffield. Photo: © RWD
Flowers have three white external petals. Leaves have a satin sheen.


10th March 2009, wooded glade, Porter Brook, Sheffield. Photo: © RWD
Closer inspection reveals a set of three white notched inner petals.


10th March 2009, wooded glade, Porter Brook, Sheffield. Photo: © RWD
The inner petals have two light-green quarter-segments within the lobes of the notch. The Three outer petals have a much fainter patch of green on the inner surface, near the un-notched tip.


10th March 2009, wooded glade, Porter Brook, Sheffield. Photo: © RWD
The three inner light-green tipped petals are green on both sides, inner and outer sides. There is no faint green mark on the tips of the inside of the outer three petals, unlike as in Green Snowdrop.


10th March 2009, wooded glade, Porter Brook, Sheffield. Photo: © RWD
Unlike all? other snowdrops, the leaves of Green Snowdrop have bright-green leaves. The leaves are also broader than more common Snowdrops, rounded at the ends, slightly curly at the edges and finely ribbed with multiple longitudinal corrugations.


Galanthus ikariae
Winter. Photo: © Mark Smyth
Galanthus ikariae.
The major difference between Galanthus woronowii above and this other version of Green Snowdrop are the merged and extended green markings at the tips of the three inner tepals.


Winter. Photo: © Mark Smyth
Galanthus ikariae.
The green markings on the inner tepals extends upwards beyond half-way.

Easily confused with : Galanthus ikariae (another 'Green Snowdrop'); the two are very similar, but with ikariae the green marks on the inner tepals are larger, extending over at least half of the segment.

This, the Galanthus woronowii version of Green Snowdrop is more likely to be found either in a garden or growing wild than is the Galanthus ikariae version because this version is more widely available for purchase from garden centres and the like.

However, Clive Stace (Third Edition) lists Galanthus ikariae as being a disused name for Galanthus woronowii. Please take your pick, confusion abounds...

Uniquely identifiable characteristics

Distinguishing Feature : a snowdrop with green leaves rather than grey-green.

  Galanthus woronowii  ⇐ Global Aspect ⇒ Alliaceae  

Distribution
family8Daffodil family8Alliaceae family8alliaceae family8onion family8garlic
 BSBI maps
genus8Galanthus
Galanthus
(Snowdrops)

GREEN SNOWDROP

Galanthus woronowii

(Formerly: Galanthus ikariae)
Onion & Garlic Family [Alliaceae]  
Formerly in: Lily Family [Liliaceae]

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