Germany: Spring Snowflakes Wildflowers
One wildflower stands out from the vast variety of the Thuringian spring wildflowers – Spring Snowflake aka Leucojum Vernum. For starters, these are absolutely the first spring wildflowers coming out in early-mid March, sometimes with the ground still with snow. Secondly, these are endemic to Central Europe and are not common further east Finally, they form massive carpets, literally covering the ground as far as the eye can see, making it appear as if it’s snow – hence the name Snowflake. Like tulips, they have bulbs and solitary six-petal flowers on the end of long stems. The petal endings have green and sometimes yellow markings on the tips. Interestingly, the flower was described originally in 1753 by none other then Carl Linnaeus himself, the Swedish botanist who is the father of the modern day taxonomy – he invented the entire system of genera, families, species, and so on.
