Galanthus nivalis - Snowdrop

Yep, I know, I know, this isn’t a native…or is it? In Flora Botanica, Richard Maybe alludes to a doubt about this saying ‘Yet this history of deliberate introduction and cultivation [In church yards and gardens] does not mean that snowdrops are not authentic wild natives in some parts of the west and south. And even where their origins are doubtful, they always have a wild cast about them.’ 

The snowdrop is a perennial bulb that grows on moist woodland and in other shaded places, spreading mostly by division; it is often found in gardens, parks, churchyards and on road verges; it was known to be in cultivation in Britain in 1597 but was not recorded in the wild until 1778.

So I’m curious to see what benefits these ‘February fairmaids’ used to celebrate the Feast of Candlemas on the 2nd of February, have in the ecology as, if not native, they are widely naturalized. Here in my wiltshire garden in mid February, it’s pretty much the only thing out apart from a few primroses. In the wider countryside the gorse Ulex europaeus is flowering bright and yellow as it almost always seems to do, does it ever stop flowering?

It seems to be difficult to find much information on where the snowdrop fits into our ecology and as this is such a showy plant, if native, it’s surprising that earlier written records of it growing in the UK haven’t been found. 

It does have the interesting ability to open its petals upwards and outwards when temperatures reach 10°C and above and pollinating insects are likely to be flying.

Even if not previously native, It’s a plant that we seem to accept as our own, as a welcome introduction. With a native colony as close as Brittany and being widespread on the continent this could well be a plant that can help us to confront the challenges of climate change and an upwards move of wildflowers and their animal associates as temperatures rise.