Galanthus (from Ancient Greek γάλα, (gála, "milk") + ἄνθος (ánthos, "flower")), or snowdrop, is a small genus of approximately 20 species of bulbous perennial herbaceous plants in the family Amaryllidaceae.

The plants have two linear leaves and a single small white drooping bell-shaped flower with six petal-like (petaloid) tepals in two circles (whorls).

The genus is characterised by the presence of two leaves, pendulous white flowers with six free perianth segments in two whorls.

[7] At the top of the scape is a pair of bract-like spathes (valves) usually fused down one side and joined by a papery membrane, appearing monophyllous (single).

From between the spathes emerges a solitary (rarely two), pendulous, nodding, bell-shaped white flower, held on a slender pedicel.

The outer tepals are acute to more or less obtuse, spathulate or oblanceolate to narrowly obovate or linear, shortly clawed, and erect spreading.

The inner tepals are much shorter (half to two thirds as long), oblong, spathulate or oblanceolate, somewhat unguiculate (claw like); tapering to the base and erect.

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.

[13] Most other Galanthus species are from the eastern Mediterranean, while several are found in the Caucasus, in southern Russia, Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan.

Snowdrops have been known since early times, being described by the classical Greek author Theophrastus, in the fourth century BCE, in his Περὶ φυτῶν ἱστορία (Latin: Historia plantarum, Enquiry into plants).

He described the plant as "ἑπεἰ τοῖς γε χρώμασι λευκἂ καἱ οὐ λεπυριώδη" (in colour white and bulbs without scales)[16] and of their habits "Ἰῶν δ' ἁνθῶν τὀ μἑν πρῶτον ἑκφαἱνεται τὁ λευκόἲον, ὅπου μἑν ό ἀἠρ μαλακώτερος εὐθὑς τοῦ χειμῶνος, ὅπου δἐ σκληρότερος ὕστερον, ἑνιαχοῡ τοῡ ἣρος" (Of the flowers, the first to appear is the white violet.

[27] The modern family of Amaryllidaceae, in which Galanthus is placed, dates to Jaume Saint-Hilaire (1805) who replaced Jussieu's Narcissi with Amaryllidées.

[28] In 1810, Brown proposed that a subgroup of Liliaceae be distinguished on the basis of the position of the ovaries and be referred to as Amaryllideae,[29] and in 1813, de Candolle separated them by describing Liliacées Juss.

[33] By 1853, the number of known plants was increasing considerably and he revised his schema in his last work, placing Galanthus together, and the other two genera in the modern Galantheae in tribe Amarylleae, order Amaryllidaceae, alliance Narcissales.

[52][53][54] Stern divided the genus into three series according to leaf vernation (the way the leaves are folded in the bud, when viewed in transverse section, see Description);[47] Stern further utilised characteristics such as the markings of the inner segments, length of the pedicels in relation to the spathe, and the colour and shape of the leaves in identifying and classifying species Traub considered them as subgenera; By contrast Davis, with much more information and specimens, included biogeography in addition to vernation, forming two series.

A number of species, such as G. nivalis and G. elwesii demonstrated intraspecific biogeographical clades, indicating problems with speciation and there may be a need for recircumscription.

[3] By contrast, another study performed at the same time, using both nuclear and chloroplast DNA, but limited to the 14 species found in Turkey, largely confirmed Davis' series and subseries, and with biogeographical correlation.

[55] Platyphyllus Trojanus Ikariae Elwesii Nivalis Woronowii Alpinus sensu Ronsted et al. 2013[3] Viridifolii Glaucaefolii Galanthus Galanthus is derived from the Greek γάλα (gala), meaning "milk" and ἄνθος (anthos) meaning "flower", alluding to the colour of the flowers.

[57][58] The word "Snowdrop" may be derived from the German Schneetropfen (snow-drop), the tear drop shaped pearl earrings popular in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

Other, earlier, common names include Candlemas bells, Fair maids of February, and White ladies (see Symbols).

[43] Galanthus species and cultivars are extremely popular as symbols of spring and are traded more than any other wild-source ornamental bulb genus.

Celebrated as a sign of spring, snowdrops may form impressive carpets of white in areas where they are native or have been naturalised.

[71]  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.

[7] As of July 2017[update], the following have gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit:[73] 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.

[99] In 1983, Andreas Plaitakis and Roger Duvoisin suggested that the mysterious magical herb, moly, that appears in Homer's Odyssey is the snowdrop.

One of the active principles present in the snowdrop is the alkaloid galantamine, which, as an acetylcholinesterase inhibitor, could have acted as an antidote to Circe's poisons.

[101] Galantamine (or galanthamine) may be helpful in the treatment of Alzheimer's disease, although it is not a cure;[102] the substance also occurs naturally in daffodils and other narcissi.

[21][59] In the language of flowers, the snowdrop is synonymous with 'hope' (and the goddess Persephone's/Proserpina's return from Hades), as it blooms in early springtime, just before the vernal equinox, and so, is seen as 'heralding' the new spring and new year.

In more recent times, the snowdrop was adopted as a symbol of sorrow and of hope following the Dunblane massacre in Scotland, and lent its name to the subsequent campaign to restrict the legal ownership of handguns in the UK.