Galanthus plicatus

Galanthus plicatus, the pleated snowdrop, is a species of flowering plant in the family Amaryllidaceae, native to eastern Europe and western Asia. It is a spring flowering bulbous herbaceous perennial.

Description
Galanthus plicatus grows to about 15 cm tall. Its leaves are bluish or greyish green, broader than many other species of Galanthus, up to 2 cm wide. The leaf edges are folded back away from the upper surface of the leaf, both in bud and after they expand. The nodding white flowers appear in very early spring, and are among the very first plants to flower. They have six white tepals. The outer three are all white, 2-3 cm long; the inner three are shorter and notched, with a green mark above the notch, often extending to beyond the middle of the tepal. In G. plicatus subsp. byzantinus, the inner tepals also have a green mark at the base.

Taxonomy
Galanthus plicatus was first described by the German biologist Friedrich Marschall von Bieberstein in 1819. In 1893, Baker described Galanthus byzantinus from north-western Turkey as a separate species, differing in possessing green marks at the base as well as the tip of the inner three tepals. It is now usually treated as a subspecies of G. plicatus.

Subspecies
Two subspecies are recognized:
 * Galanthus plicatus subsp. byzantinus (Baker) D.A.Webb – north-west Turkey
 * Galanthus plicatus subsp. plicatus – throughout the range of the species

Distribution and habitat
Galanthus plicatus occurs from eastern Europe (Romania, Ukraine and Crimea) through Turkey to the north-west Caucasus. G. plicatus subsp. plicatus is found throughout the range of the species, G. plicatus subsp. byzantinus only in north-west Turkey. The species is found in woodland and scrub, usually in shade. Ii is a red book species in Ukraine, and in the Crimean Tatar language it's called aqbardaq - white cup.

Cultivation
Galanthus plicatus and the cultivar 'Three Ships' are both recipients of the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit. The cultivar 'Wendy's Gold' has a yellow ovary and yellow markings on the inner petals.