page_title: Galanthus
section_title: Subdivision
hierarchical_section_title: Galanthus / Taxonomy / Subdivision
caption_attribution_description: English: Snowdrop (Galanthus elwesii) Deutsch: Schneeglöckchen
context_page_description: Galanthus 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 tepals in two circles. The smaller inner petals have green markings.
  Snowdrops have been known since the earliest times under various names, but were named Galanthus in 1753. As the number of recognised species increased, various attempts were made to divide the species into subgroups, usually on the basis of the pattern of the emerging leaves. In the era of molecular phylogenetics this characteristic has been shown to be unreliable and now seven molecularly defined clades are recognised that correspond to the biogeographical distribution of species. New species continue to be discovered.
  Most species flower in winter, before the vernal equinox, but some flower in early spring and late autumn. Sometimes snowdrops are confused with the two related genera within the tribe Galantheae, snowflakes Leucojum and Acis.
context_section_description: Galanthus has approximately 20 species, but new species continue to be described. G. trojanus was identified in Turkey in 2001. G. panjutinii (Panjutin's snowdrop) was discovered in 2012 in five locations in a small area (estimated at 20 km² (7.7 sq mi)) of the northern Colchis area (western Transcaucasus) of Georgia and Russia. G. samothracicus was identified in Greece in 2014. Since it has not been subjected to genetic sequencing, it remains unplaced. It resembles G. nivalis, but is outside the distribution of that species.
  Many species are difficult to identify, however, and traditional infrageneric classification based on morphological alone, such as those of Stern (1956), Traub (1963) and Davis (1999, 2001), has not reflected what is known about its evolutionary history due to the morphological similarities among the species, and relative lack of easily discernible distinguishing characteristics. 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);
  section Nivales Beck (flat leaves)
  section Plicati Beck (plicate leaves)
  section Latifolii Stern (convolute leaves)
  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;
  subgenus Galanthus
  subgenus Plicatanthus Traub & Moldk.
  subgenus Platyphyllanthe Traub
  By contrast Davis, with much more information and specimens, included biogeography in addition to vernation, forming two series. He used somewhat different terminology for vernation, namely applanate (flat), explicative (plicate), and supervolute (convolute). He merged Nivalis and Plicati into series Galanthus, and divided Latifolii into two subseries, Glaucaefolii (Kem.-Nath) A.P.Davis and Viridifolii (Kem.-Nath) A.P.Davis.
  Early molecular phylogenetic studies confirmed the genus was monophyletic and suggested four clades, which were labelled as series, and showed that Davis' subseries were not monophyletic. An expanded study in 2013 demonstrated seven major clades corresponding to biogeographical distribution. This study used nuclear encoded nrITS (Nuclear ribosomal internal transcribed spacer), and plastid encoded matK (Maturase K), trnL-F, ndhF, and psbK–psbI, and examined all species recognised at the time, as well as two naturally occurring putative hybrids. The morphological characteristic of vernation that earlier authors had mainly relied on was shown to be highly homoplasious. 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. These clades were assigned names, partly according to Davis' previous groupings. In this model clade Platyphyllus is sister to the rest of the genus.
  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. Series Galanthus in this study corresponded to clade nivalis, subseries Glaucaefolii with clade Elwesii and subseries Viridifolii with clades Woronowii and Alpinus. However, the model did not provide complete resolution.
caption: Galanthus elwesii
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