Book ID: 105334
Bavcon, Joze
Common Snowdrop (Galanthus nivais L.) in Slovenia. 2014. Many col. photogr. 308 p. gr8vo. Paper bd.- Bilingual (Slovenian / English)
The common snowdrop (Galanthus nivalis L.) is a widely distributed species in Slovenia, being also the sole representative of the genus Galanthus L.. Expansive populations of snowdrops grow on margins of forests, non-manured meadows and in forests. Slovenia, however, is very diverse in terms of climate, relief, geological and petrographic structures, and consequently flora. It is devided into four phytogeographic regions, Alpine, Dinaric, Subpannonian and Submediterranean, as well as two transitional regions: pre-Alpine and pre-Dinaric. This diversity is reflected in the flora.
Generally speaking, common snowdrop grows in all the aforementioned regions, with the lowest presence in Alpine region, and therefore has a high possibility of diversity. In this work, the author describes the environments in which the common snowdrop usually grows, the plants that accompany it, how it adapts to the most extreme circumstances and how it survives such conditions. He was also interested to determine the stability of these local features varieties, in culture. Based on the observation over a number of years of specimens in the Botanic Gardens, the features were divided into groups with respect to the following: shape of flower, size of plant as a whole, shape of outer and inner perianth segments, number of outer and inner perianth segments, colouring of outer amd inner perianth segments, pattern of inner perianth segments, shape and colour of the ovary, spathe, extra bracts, green stem leaves (number, width, colour), number of flowers. The Botanic Garden collection currently includes over 2000 specimens of common snowdrop, among which all aforementioned groups are represented.