Galanthus Spanish and French Pyrenees in the west through to the Caucasus and Iran in the east, and south to Sicily, the Peloponnese and 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 naturalized in Europe, North America and other regions. "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
Chlamydomonas nivalis "Uredo nivalis". Over the next century, many researchers disputed over whether these organisms were lichen, plants, alga, or animal. It was not until the early 20th century when researchers finally began to agree on the algal nature of the organism and gave its currently known name, "Chlamydomonas nivalis". In 1968 "C. nivalis" was officially recognized as a collective taxon. Unfortunately, due to the lack of sequencing techniques, reliance on visually examining similarly looking snow alga, and complicated life cycle of this species, errors continued to be made in classifying this and other species of snow algae. Today, "C. nivalis" has