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Useful
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Herb |
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Leucojum
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| Other Names for this Plant |
Loddon Lily, Giant Snowflake, Snowflake Lily, Early Summer Fooles, Summer Sottekins, Wild Loddon Lily, St. Agnes's flower
The snowflakes are native to central and southern Europe. The snowflakes are native to North Africa and the Mediterranean region from the Pyrenées to Romania and western Russia, but they have been introduced and have naturalized in many other areas, including the east coast of North America.
They have narrow, strap-like, dark green leaves. The flowers are small and bell-shaped, white with a green (or occasionally yellow) spot at the end of each tepal. They have a slight fragrance.
Leucojum vernum (Spring snowflake) normally grows 15-20 cm tall (6-8 in), though it may reach up to 35 cm (14 in). It flowers one or two weeks later than the snowdrops, i.e., from mid-February to March, as soon as the snow melts in its wild habitat
The snowflakes are bulbous perennials with threadlike or straplike leaves and nodding, dainty white flowers. The 4-6 leaves of summer snowflake are 1-2 ft (0.3-0.6 m) long and a little less than 1 in (2.5 cm) wide. They grow up and outward from the bulb and bend down in a graceful sweep. The inflorescence of summer snowflake consists of 2-5 bell shaped, mildly fragrant flowers, each about 1 in (2.5 cm) across, nodding from the tip of a hollow scape (flower stalk) that stands just above the leaves. Each flower has six perianth segments or tepals (three sepals and three petals), all of which look about the same. Each snow white tepal has a small emerald green spot near its tip. The popular cultivar, 'Gravetye Giant', is larger and more robust, and has larger, more numerous flowers.
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One First-Leaves (Monocots) |
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Half Capsule Seed Division |
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Magnolia Division |
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Seed Plants |
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Multiple Spore Sub-Kingdom |
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Multicellular Land Plants |
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Cells with a Nucleus |
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The violet scented spring snowflake is dedicated to St.
Agnes, the patron saint of young virgins due to its loveliness and purity, and is often
referred to as St. Agnes's flower.
John Parkinson, the great seventeenth-century English botanist, listed the snowflake in A
Garden of Pleasant Flowers in 1629 as the "great bulbous violet". Early American nurseryman Joseph Breck referred to snowflakes in The Flower Garden (1851) as "great snowdrops" while Henderson's Handbook of Plants (Henderson, 1881) and Bulbs and Tuberous Rooted Plants (Allen, 1893) both called them "among the most desirable of early bulbs." In her classic Adventures with Hardy Bulbs (1936) Louise Beebe Wilder also calls them "among the most worthwhile of spring flowering bulbous plants." Obviously, this plant is pretty good or early garden writers were plagiaristic (possibly a combination of the two).
Cultivation: Summer snowflake is one of the easiest and most carefree naturalizing bulbs you can grow. Summer snowflake prospers in full sun to light shade. Like daffodils, they can be grown under shrubs and trees that are leafless in the late winter and early spring. Summer snowflake likes a moist, but well drained soil. It tolerates drought when dormant in the summer, but should have regular watering during its springtime period of flowering and growth. Summer snowflake tolerates clayey, even waterlogged soils, too. USDA Zones 4 - 9. In zone 9 summer snowflake blooms in late autumn and winter; elsewhere it blooms in the very early spring.
Propagation: The bulbs of snowflakes multiply freely and can be divided every 3-5 years. They are best planted in autumn, 2-4 in (5-10.2 cm) deep and spaced about 6 in (15.2 cm) apart.
Other Notes: Leucojum aestivum was named the county flower of Berkshire following a 2002 survey by the wild flower and plant conservation charity Plantlife.
Summer Snowflake
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Summer Snowflake
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Summer Snowflake
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Summer Snowflake
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| Comment:
Summer Snowflake, Leucojum aestivum |
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