78-484: 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 smaller inner petals have green markings. Snowdrops have been known since
156-537: A pitch accent . In Modern Greek, all vowels and consonants are short. Many vowels and diphthongs once pronounced distinctly are pronounced as /i/ ( iotacism ). Some of the stops and glides in diphthongs have become fricatives , and the pitch accent has changed to a stress accent . Many of the changes took place in the Koine Greek period. The writing system of Modern Greek, however, does not reflect all pronunciation changes. The examples below represent Attic Greek in
234-399: A description of a particular plant practically loses its value. Use of these terms is not restricted to leaves, but may be applied to morphology of other parts of plants, e.g. bracts , bracteoles , stipules , sepals , petals , carpels or scales . Some of these terms are also used for similar-looking anatomical features on animals. Leaves of most plants include a flat structure called
312-692: A few forms of G. nivalis are autumn flowering. In colder climates, they will emerge through snow (see illustration). They naturalise relatively easily forming large drifts. These are often sterile, found near human habitation, and also former monastic sites. The leaves die back a few weeks after the flowers have faded. Galanthus plants are relatively vigorous and may spread rapidly by forming bulb offsets . They also spread by dispersal of seed, animals disturbing bulbs, and water if disturbed by floods. Some snowdrop species are threatened in their wild habitats , due to habitat destruction , illegal collecting, and climate change . In most countries collecting bulbs from
390-478: A garden setting. Cultivars with yellow markings and ovaries rather than the usual green are also grown, such as 'Wendy's Gold'. Many hybrids have also occurred in cultivation. As of July 2017, the following have gained the Royal Horticultural Society 's Award of Garden Merit : Propagation is by offset bulbs, either by careful division of clumps in full growth ("in the green"), or removed when
468-472: A lack of contemporaneous evidence. Several theories exist about what Hellenic dialect groups may have existed between the divergence of early Greek-like speech from the common Proto-Indo-European language and the Classical period. They have the same general outline but differ in some of the detail. The only attested dialect from this period is Mycenaean Greek , but its relationship to the historical dialects and
546-399: A leaf. may be coarsely dentate , having large teeth or glandular dentate , having teeth which bear glands Leaves may also be folded, sculpted or rolled in various ways. If the leaves are initially folded in the bud, but later unrolls it is called vernation , ptyxis is the folding of an individual leaf in a bud. The Latin word for 'leaf', folium , is neuter. In descriptions of
624-419: A lesser degree. Pamphylian Greek , spoken in a small area on the southwestern coast of Anatolia and little preserved in inscriptions, may be either a fifth major dialect group, or it is Mycenaean Greek overlaid by Doric, with a non-Greek native influence. Regarding the speech of the ancient Macedonians diverse theories have been put forward, but the epigraphic activity and the archaeological discoveries in
702-410: A name by which it previously had been known. In 1763 Michel Adanson began a system of arranging genera in families. Using the synonym Acrocorion (also spelt Akrokorion ), he placed Galanthus in the family Liliaceae , section Narcissi. Lamarck provided a description of the genus in his encyclopedia (1786), and later, Illustrations des genres (1793). In 1789 de Jussieu , who is credited with
780-543: A prefix /e-/, called the augment . This was probably originally a separate word, meaning something like "then", added because tenses in PIE had primarily aspectual meaning. The augment is added to the indicative of the aorist, imperfect, and pluperfect, but not to any of the other forms of the aorist (no other forms of the imperfect and pluperfect exist). The two kinds of augment in Greek are syllabic and quantitative. The syllabic augment
858-671: A separate historical stage, though its earliest form closely resembles Attic Greek , and its latest form approaches Medieval Greek , and Koine may be classified as Ancient Greek in a wider sense. There were several regional dialects of Ancient Greek; Attic Greek developed into Koine. Ancient Greek was a pluricentric language , divided into many dialects. The main dialect groups are Attic and Ionic , Aeolic , Arcadocypriot , and Doric , many of them with several subdivisions. Some dialects are found in standardized literary forms in literature , while others are attested only in inscriptions. There are also several historical forms. Homeric Greek
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#1732851237498936-633: A sign of spring, snowdrops may form impressive carpets of white in areas where they are native or have been naturalised. These displays may attract large numbers of sightseers. There are a number of snowdrop gardens in England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland. Several gardens open specially in February for visitors to admire the flowers. Sixty gardens took part in Scotland's first Snowdrop Festival (1 Feb–11 March 2007). Several gardens in England open during snowdrop season for
1014-609: A standard subject of study in educational institutions of the Western world since the Renaissance . This article primarily contains information about the Epic and Classical periods of the language, which are the best-attested periods and considered most typical of Ancient Greek. From the Hellenistic period ( c. 300 BC ), Ancient Greek was followed by Koine Greek , which is regarded as
1092-510: A vowel or /n s r/ ; final stops were lost, as in γάλα "milk", compared with γάλακτος "of milk" (genitive). Ancient Greek of the classical period also differed in both the inventory and distribution of original PIE phonemes due to numerous sound changes, notably the following: The pronunciation of Ancient Greek was very different from that of Modern Greek . Ancient Greek had long and short vowels ; many diphthongs ; double and single consonants; voiced, voiceless, and aspirated stops ; and
1170-556: Is a literary form of Archaic Greek (derived primarily from Ionic and Aeolic) used in the epic poems , the Iliad and the Odyssey , and in later poems by other authors. Homeric Greek had significant differences in grammar and pronunciation from Classical Attic and other Classical-era dialects. The origins, early form and development of the Hellenic language family are not well understood because of
1248-418: Is added to stems beginning with consonants, and simply prefixes e (stems beginning with r , however, add er ). The quantitative augment is added to stems beginning with vowels, and involves lengthening the vowel: Some verbs augment irregularly; the most common variation is e → ei . The irregularity can be explained diachronically by the loss of s between vowels, or that of the letter w , which affected
1326-644: Is called 'East Greek'. Arcadocypriot apparently descended more closely from the Mycenaean Greek of the Bronze Age. Boeotian Greek had come under a strong Northwest Greek influence, and can in some respects be considered a transitional dialect, as exemplified in the poems of the Boeotian poet Pindar who wrote in Doric with a small Aeolic admixture. Thessalian likewise had come under Northwest Greek influence, though to
1404-420: Is characterised by the presence of two leaves , pendulous white flowers with six free perianth segments in two whorls . The inner whorl is smaller than the outer whorl and has green markings. These are basal, emerging from the bulb initially enclosed in a tubular membranous sheath of cataphylls . Generally, these are two (sometimes three) in number and linear, strap-shaped, or oblanceolate . Vernation ,
1482-419: Is commonly used for plant identification. Similar terms are used for other plant parts, such as petals , tepals , and bracts . Leaf margins (edges) are frequently used in visual plant identification because they are usually consistent within a species or group of species, and are an easy characteristic to observe. Edge and margin are interchangeable in the sense that they both refer to the outside perimeter of
1560-448: Is considered by some linguists to have been closely related to Greek . Among Indo-European branches with living descendants, Greek is often argued to have the closest genetic ties with Armenian (see also Graeco-Armenian ) and Indo-Iranian languages (see Graeco-Aryan ). Ancient Greek differs from Proto-Indo-European (PIE) and other Indo-European languages in certain ways. In phonotactics , ancient Greek words could end only in
1638-405: 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 ); Stern further utilised characteristics such as the markings of
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#17328512374981716-516: Is not always clear whether because of ignorance, or personal preference, or because usages change with time or context, or because of variation between specimens, even specimens from the same plant. For example, whether to call leaves on the same tree "acuminate", "lanceolate", or "linear" could depend on individual judgement, or which part of the tree one collected them from. The same cautions might apply to "caudate", "cuspidate", and "mucronate", or to "crenate", "dentate", and "serrate". Another problem
1794-628: Is often thought of as a British native wild flower, or to have been brought to the British Isles by the Romans, it most likely was introduced around the early sixteenth century, and is currently not a protected species in the UK. It was first recorded as naturalised in the UK in Worcestershire and Gloucestershire in 1770. Most other Galanthus species are from the eastern Mediterranean, while several are found in
1872-529: Is one of three closely related genera making up the tribe Galantheae within subfamily Amaryllidoideae (family Amaryllidaceae ). Sometimes snowdrops are confused with the other two genera, Leucojum and Acis (both called snowflakes). Leucojum species are much larger and flower in spring (or early summer, depending on the species), with all six tepals in the flower being the same size, although some "poculiform" (goblet- or cup-shaped) Galanthus species may have inner segments similar in shape and length to
1950-437: Is tightly clasped around the other within the bud and generally remains at the point where the leaves emerge from the soil (for illustration, see Stearn and Davis). In the past, this feature has been used to distinguish between species and to determine the parentage of hybrids, but now has been shown to be homoplasious , and not useful in this regard. The scape (flowering stalk) is erect, leafless, terete , or compressed. At
2028-535: Is to establish definitions that meet all cases or satisfy all authorities and readers. For example, it seems altogether reasonable to define a mucro as "a small sharp point as a continuation of the midrib", but it may not be clear how small is small enough, how sharp is sharp enough, how hard the point must be, and what to call the point when one cannot tell whether the leaf has a midrib at all. Various authors or field workers might come to incompatible conclusions, or might try to compromise by qualifying terms so vaguely that
2106-701: The Caucasus and Iran in the east, and south to Sicily , the Peloponnese , the Aegean , Turkey , Lebanon , and Syria . The northern limit is uncertain because G. nivalis has been widely introduced and cultivated throughout Europe. G. nivalis and some other species valued as ornamentals have become widely naturalised in Europe, North America, and other regions. In the Udmurt republic of Russia, Galanthus are found even above
2184-454: The Caucasus , in southern Russia, Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan. Galanthus fosteri is found in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Turkey, and, perhaps, Palestine . Most Galanthus species grow best in woodland , in acid or alkaline soil, although some are grassland or mountain species. Snowdrops have been known since early times, being described by the classical Greek author Theophrastus , in
2262-745: The Greek region of Macedonia during the last decades has brought to light documents, among which the first texts written in Macedonian , such as the Pella curse tablet , as Hatzopoulos and other scholars note. Based on the conclusions drawn by several studies and findings such as Pella curse tablet , Emilio Crespo and other scholars suggest that ancient Macedonian was a Northwest Doric dialect , which shares isoglosses with its neighboring Thessalian dialects spoken in northeastern Thessaly . Some have also suggested an Aeolic Greek classification. The Lesbian dialect
2340-902: The IUCN Red List of threatened species, with the conservation status being G. trojanus as critically endangered , four species vulnerable , G. nivalis is near threatened and several species show decreasing populations. G. panjutinii is considered endangered . One of its five known sites, at Sochi , was destroyed by preparations for the 2014 Winter Olympics . Galanthus species and cultivars are extremely popular as symbols of spring and are traded more than any other wild-source ornamental bulb genus. Millions of bulbs are exported annually from Turkey and Georgia . For instance export quotas for 2016 for G. elwesii were 7 million for Turkey. Quotas for G. worononowii were 5 million for Turkey and 15 million for Georgia. These figures include both wild-taken and artificially propagated bulbs. Celebrated as
2418-902: The National Gardens Scheme (NGS) and in Scotland for Scotland's Gardens. Colesbourne Park in Gloucestershire is one of the best known of the English snowdrop gardens, being the home of Henry John Elwes , a collector of Galanthus specimens, and after whom Galanthus elwesii is named. Numerous single- and double-flowered cultivars of Galanthus nivalis are known, and also of several other Galanthus species, particularly G. plicatus and G. elwesii . Also, many hybrids between these and other species exist (more than 500 cultivars are described in Bishop, Davis, and Grimshaw's book, plus lists of many cultivars that have now been lost, and others not seen by
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2496-570: The biogeographical distribution of species. New species continue to be discovered. Most species flower in winter, before the vernal equinox (20 or 21 March in the Northern Hemisphere ), 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 . All species of Galanthus are perennial petaloid herbaceous bulbous (growing from bulbs ) monocot plants. The genus
2574-501: The present , future , and imperfect are imperfective in aspect; the aorist , present perfect , pluperfect and future perfect are perfective in aspect. Most tenses display all four moods and three voices, although there is no future subjunctive or imperative. Also, there is no imperfect subjunctive, optative or imperative. The infinitives and participles correspond to the finite combinations of tense, aspect, and voice. The indicative of past tenses adds (conceptually, at least)
2652-450: The 56th parallel. Galanthus nivalis is the best-known and most widespread representative of the genus Galanthus . 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 . It has been introduced and is widely naturalised elsewhere. Although it
2730-1031: The 5th century BC. Ancient pronunciation cannot be reconstructed with certainty, but Greek from the period is well documented, and there is little disagreement among linguists as to the general nature of the sounds that the letters represent. /oː/ raised to [uː] , probably by the 4th century BC. Greek, like all of the older Indo-European languages , is highly inflected. It is highly archaic in its preservation of Proto-Indo-European forms. In ancient Greek, nouns (including proper nouns) have five cases ( nominative , genitive , dative , accusative , and vocative ), three genders ( masculine , feminine , and neuter ), and three numbers (singular, dual , and plural ). Verbs have four moods ( indicative , imperative , subjunctive , and optative ) and three voices (active, middle, and passive ), as well as three persons (first, second, and third) and various other forms. Verbs are conjugated through seven combinations of tenses and aspect (generally simply called "tenses"):
2808-490: The Archaic period of ancient Greek (see Homeric Greek for more details): Μῆνιν ἄειδε, θεά, Πηληϊάδεω Ἀχιλῆος οὐλομένην, ἣ μυρί' Ἀχαιοῖς ἄλγε' ἔθηκε, πολλὰς δ' ἰφθίμους ψυχὰς Ἄϊδι προΐαψεν ἡρώων, αὐτοὺς δὲ ἑλώρια τεῦχε κύνεσσιν οἰωνοῖσί τε πᾶσι· Διὸς δ' ἐτελείετο βουλή· ἐξ οὗ δὴ τὰ πρῶτα διαστήτην ἐρίσαντε Ἀτρεΐδης τε ἄναξ ἀνδρῶν καὶ δῖος Ἀχιλλεύς. The beginning of Apology by Plato exemplifies Attic Greek from
2886-583: The Classical period of ancient Greek. (The second line is the IPA , the third is transliterated into the Latin alphabet using a modern version of the Erasmian scheme .) Ὅτι [hóti Hóti μὲν men mèn ὑμεῖς, hyːmêːs hūmeîs, Glossary of leaf morphology#acute The following terms are used to describe leaf morphology in the description and taxonomy of plants. Leaves may be simple (that is,
2964-454: The French vernacular name, Perce-neige (Snow-pierce), based on the plants tendency to push through early spring snow (see Ecology for illustration). The modern family of Amaryllidaceae , in which Galanthus is placed, dates to Jaume Saint-Hilaire (1805) who replaced Jussieu's Narcissi with Amaryllidées . In 1810, Brown proposed that a subgroup of Liliaceae be distinguished on the basis of
3042-488: The anthers; they dehisce (open) by terminal pores or short slits. The inferior ovary is three-celled. The style is slender and longer than the anthers; the stigma is minutely capitate . The ovary ripens into a three-celled capsule fruit. This fruit is fleshy, ellipsoid or almost spherical, opening by three flaps, with seeds that are light brown to white and oblong with a small appendage or tail ( elaiosome ) containing substances attractive to ants , which distribute
3120-550: The aorist. Following Homer 's practice, the augment is sometimes not made in poetry , especially epic poetry. The augment sometimes substitutes for reduplication; see below. Almost all forms of the perfect, pluperfect, and future perfect reduplicate the initial syllable of the verb stem. (A few irregular forms of perfect do not reduplicate, whereas a handful of irregular aorists reduplicate.) The three types of reduplication are: Irregular duplication can be understood diachronically. For example, lambanō (root lab ) has
3198-459: The arrangement of the emerging leaves relative to each other, varies among species. These may be applanate (flat), supervolute (conduplicate), or explicative (pleated). In applanate vernation, the two leaf blades are pressed flat to each other within the bud and as they emerge; explicative leaves are also pressed flat against each other, but the edges of the leaves are folded back (externally recurved) or sometimes rolled; in supervolute plants, one leaf
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3276-419: The augment when it was word-initial. In verbs with a preposition as a prefix, the augment is placed not at the start of the word, but between the preposition and the original verb. For example, προσ(-)βάλλω (I attack) goes to προσ έ βαλoν in the aorist. However compound verbs consisting of a prefix that is not a preposition retain the augment at the start of the word: αὐτο(-)μολῶ goes to ηὐ τομόλησα in
3354-504: The authors). They differ particularly in the size, shape, and markings of the flower, the period of flowering, and other characteristics, mainly of interest to the keen (even fanatical) snowdrop collectors, known as " galanthophiles ", who hold meetings where the scarcer cultivars change hands. 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
3432-469: The base, the apex, or both, that when at the apex, are bridge-shaped over the small sinus (notch) at the tip of each tepal, which are emarginate . Occasionally, the markings are either green-yellow, yellow, or absent, and the shape and size varies by species. The six stamens are inserted at the base of the perianth, and are very short (shorter than the inner perianth segments), the anthers basifixed (attached at their bases) with filaments much shorter than
3510-429: The blade or lamina, but not all leaves are flat, some are cylindrical. Leaves may be simple, with a single leaf blade, or compound, with several leaflets . In flowering plants , as well as the blade of the leaf, there may be a petiole and stipules ; compound leaves may have a rachis supporting the leaflets. Leaf structure is described by several terms that include: Being one of the more visible features, leaf shape
3588-438: The center of Greek scholarship, this division of people and language is quite similar to the results of modern archaeological-linguistic investigation. One standard formulation for the dialects is: West vs. non-West Greek is the strongest-marked and earliest division, with non-West in subsets of Ionic-Attic (or Attic-Ionic) and Aeolic vs. Arcadocypriot, or Aeolic and Arcado-Cypriot vs. Ionic-Attic. Often non-West
3666-611: The dialect of Sparta ), and Northern Peloponnesus Doric (including Corinthian ). All the groups were represented by colonies beyond Greece proper as well, and these colonies generally developed local characteristics, often under the influence of settlers or neighbors speaking different Greek dialects. After the conquests of Alexander the Great in the late 4th century BC, a new international dialect known as Koine or Common Greek developed, largely based on Attic Greek , but with influence from other dialects. This dialect slowly replaced most of
3744-430: 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 ( vernation ). 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
3822-525: The flowers, the first to appear is the white violet. Where the climate is mild, it appears with the first sign of winter, but in more severe climates, later in spring) Rembert Dodoens , a Flemish botanist, described and illustrated this plant in 1583 as did Gerard in England in 1597 (probably using much of Dodoens' material), calling it Leucojum bulbosum praecox (Early bulbous violet). Gerard refers to Theophrastus's description as Viola alba or Viola bulbosa , using Pliny 's translation, and comments that
3900-663: The forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek ( c. 1400–1200 BC ), Dark Ages ( c. 1200–800 BC ), the Archaic or Epic period ( c. 800–500 BC ), and the Classical period ( c. 500–300 BC ). Ancient Greek was the language of Homer and of fifth-century Athenian historians, playwrights, and philosophers . It has contributed many words to English vocabulary and has been
3978-539: The fourth century BCE, in his Περὶ φυτῶν ἱστορία ( Latin : Historia plantarum , Enquiry into plants ). He gave it, and similar plants, the name λευκόἲον (λευκος, leukos "white" and ἰόν, ion "violet") from which the later name Leucojum was derived. He described the plant as "ἑπεἰ τοῖς γε χρώμασι λευκἂ καἱ οὐ λεπυριώδη" (in colour white and bulbs without scales) 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
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#17328512374984056-474: 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 nr ITS (Nuclear ribosomal internal transcribed spacer), and plastid encoded genes matK ( Maturase K ), trnL-F , ndhF , and psbK–psbI , and examined all species recognised at
4134-538: The group containing G. 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,
4212-556: The historical Dorians . The invasion is known to have displaced population to the later Attic-Ionic regions, who regarded themselves as descendants of the population displaced by or contending with the Dorians. The Greeks of this period believed there were three major divisions of all Greek people – Dorians, Aeolians, and Ionians (including Athenians), each with their own defining and distinctive dialects. Allowing for their oversight of Arcadian, an obscure mountain dialect, and Cypriot, far from
4290-472: The historical circumstances of the times imply that the overall groups already existed in some form. Scholars assume that major Ancient Greek period dialect groups developed not later than 1120 BC, at the time of the Dorian invasions —and that their first appearances as precise alphabetic writing began in the 8th century BC. The invasion would not be "Dorian" unless the invaders had some cultural relationship to
4368-691: 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. 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
4446-612: The leaf blade or 'lamina' is undivided) or compound (that is, the leaf blade is divided into two or more leaflets ). The edge of the leaf may be regular or irregular, and may be smooth or have hair, bristles, or spines. For more terms describing other aspects of leaves besides their overall morphology see the leaf article. The terms listed here all are supported by technical and professional usage, but they cannot be represented as mandatory or undebatable; readers must use their judgement. Authors often use terms arbitrarily, or coin them to taste, possibly in ignorance of established terms, and it
4524-463: The model did not provide complete resolution. Platyphyllus Trojanus Ikariae Elwesii Nivalis Woronowii Alpinus sensu Ronsted et al. 2013 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. The epithet nivalis is derived from the Latin , meaning "of
4602-440: The modern concept of genera organised in families , placed Galanthus and related genera within a division of Monocotyledons , using a modified form of Linnaeus' sexual classification, but with the respective topography of stamens to carpels rather than just their numbers. In doing so, he restored the name Galanthus and retained their placement under Narcissi, this time as a family (known as Ordo , at that time) and referred to
4680-531: 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. Further supporting this notion are notes made during the fourth century BC by the Greek scholar Theophrastus who wrote in Historia plantarum that moly
4758-499: The older dialects, although the Doric dialect has survived in the Tsakonian language , which is spoken in the region of modern Sparta. Doric has also passed down its aorist terminations into most verbs of Demotic Greek . By about the 6th century AD, the Koine had slowly metamorphosed into Medieval Greek . Phrygian is an extinct Indo-European language of West and Central Anatolia , which
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#17328512374984836-618: The other two genera in the modern Galantheae in tribe Amarylleae, order Amaryllidaceae, alliance Narcissales. These three genera have been treated together taxonomically by most authors, on the basis of an inferior ovary. As the number of plant species increased, so did the taxonomic complexity. By the time Bentham and Hooker published their Genera plantarum (1862–1883) ordo Amaryllideae contained five tribes, and tribe Amarylleae three subtribes (see Bentham & Hooker system ). They placed Galanthus in subtribe Genuinae and included three species. Galanthus Acis Leucojum Galanthus
4914-499: The outer ones. Galantheae are likely to have arisen in the Caucusus. 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 km (7.7 sq mi)) of the northern Colchis area (western Transcaucasus ) of Georgia and Russia . G. samothracicus
4992-429: The outer whorl being larger and more convex than the inner whorl. 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. These tepals also bear green markings at
5070-487: The perfect stem eilēpha (not * lelēpha ) because it was originally slambanō , with perfect seslēpha , becoming eilēpha through compensatory lengthening. Reduplication is also visible in the present tense stems of certain verbs. These stems add a syllable consisting of the root's initial consonant followed by i . A nasal stop appears after the reduplication in some verbs. The earliest extant examples of ancient Greek writing ( c. 1450 BC ) are in
5148-473: The plant had originated in Italy and had "taken possession" in England "many years past". The genus was formally named Galanthus and described by Carl Linnaeus in 1753, with the single species , Galanthus nivalis , which is the type species. Consequently, Linnaeus is granted the botanical authority . In doing so, he distinguished this genus and species from Leucojum ( Leucojum bulbosum trifolium minus ),
5226-410: 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. Snowdrops contain an active lectin or agglutinin named GNA for Galanthus nivalis agglutinin. In 1983, Andreas Plaitakis and Roger Duvoisin suggested that
5304-600: The position of the ovaries and be referred to as Amaryllideae, and in 1813, de Candolle separated them by describing Liliacées Juss. and Amaryllidées Brown as two quite separate families. However, in his comprehensive survey of the Flora of France ( Flore française , 1805–1815) he divided Liliaceae into a series of Ordres , and placed Galanthus into the Narcissi Ordre . This relationship of Galanthus to either liliaceous or amaryllidaceaous taxa (see Taxonomy of Liliaceae )
5382-506: The seeds. The chromosome number is 2n=24. Floral formula : ⋆ P 3 + 3 A 3 + 3 G ( 3 ) ¯ {\displaystyle \star \;P_{3+3}\;A_{3+3}\;G_{\overline {(3)}}} The genus Galanthus is native to Europe and the Middle East, from the Spanish and French Pyrenees in the west through to
5460-499: The snow". 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 ). Snowdrops are hardy herbaceous plants that perennate by underground bulbs . They are among the earliest spring bulbs to bloom, although
5538-517: The syllabic script Linear B . Beginning in the 8th century BC, however, the Greek alphabet became standard, albeit with some variation among dialects. Early texts are written in boustrophedon style, but left-to-right became standard during the classic period. Modern editions of ancient Greek texts are usually written with accents and breathing marks , interword spacing , modern punctuation , and sometimes mixed case , but these were all introduced later. The beginning of Homer 's Iliad exemplifies
5616-490: 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,
5694-413: 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 flower bears six free perianth segments ( tepals ) rather than true petals , arranged in two whorls of three,
5772-449: The wild is now illegal. Under CITES regulations, international trade in any quantity of Galanthus , whether bulbs, live plants, or even dead ones, is illegal without a CITES permit. This applies to hybrids and named cultivars, as well as species. CITES lists all species, but allows a limited trade in wild-collected bulbs of just three species ( G. nivalis , G. elwesii , and G. woronowii ) from Turkey and Georgia. A number of species are on
5850-413: Was "used as an antidote against poisons" although which specific poisons it was effective against remains unclear. Galantamine (or galanthamine) may be helpful in the treatment of Alzheimer's disease , although it is not a cure; the substance also occurs naturally in daffodils and other narcissi . Ancient Greek Ancient Greek ( Ἑλληνῐκή , Hellēnikḗ ; [hellɛːnikɛ́ː] ) includes
5928-475: Was Aeolic. For example, fragments of the works of the poet Sappho from the island of Lesbos are in Aeolian. Most of the dialect sub-groups listed above had further subdivisions, generally equivalent to a city-state and its surrounding territory, or to an island. Doric notably had several intermediate divisions as well, into Island Doric (including Cretan Doric ), Southern Peloponnesus Doric (including Laconian ,
6006-459: 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 plant morphology alone, such as those of Stern (1956), Traub (1963) and Davis (1999, 2001), has not reflected what
6084-499: Was to last for another two centuries until the two were formally divided at the end of the twentieth century. Lindley (1830) followed this general pattern, placing Galanthus and related genera such as Amaryllis and Narcissus in his Amaryllideae (which he called The Narcissus Tribe in English). By 1853, the number of known plants was increasing considerably and he revised his schema in his last work, placing Galanthus together, and
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