DYK

Did you know that snowdrops are not native to the UK? 

They are an introduction, assumed at first to have been brought here by the Romans, who were keen gardeners. But most experts now think that snowdrops were first introduced as a garden ornamental in the early 16th century. They are mentioned in John Gerard’s 1597 edition of General Historie of Plantes, but as a Timely flowring Bulbus violet. Carl Linnaeus gave the species its scientific name, Galanthus nivalis, in 1735. 

It has been suggested, so far without evidence, that they may have been brought over much earlier than the 16th century by Norman monks, as a medicinal plant for an abbey’s infirmary’s herb garden. There is no record of snowdrops in the wild until the late 18th century but it seems unlikely that a plant so easily naturalised in British woodland didn’t escape from its garden confines into the wild much sooner than that.