Any of about 12 species and many variations of white-flowered, spring-blooming, bulbous Eurasian plants that make up the genus Galanthus of the amaryllis family .
Several species, including common snowdrop ( G. nivalis ) and giant snowdrop ( G. elwesii ), are cultivated as ornamentals for their nodding, sometimes fragrant flowers. They are among the earliest garden flowers to blossom in the spring. Similarly named but very different, the snowdrop tree, or silver bells ( Halesia carolina , family Styracaceae), is a tall tree with clustered, bell-shaped flowers that grows in the southern U.S. The snowdrop bush ( Styrax officinalis ) of eastern Europe and Asia Minor, also unrelated, grows to about 18 ft (6 m).
Snowdrop ( Galanthus )
Derek Fell