Galanthus elwesii in Curtis's Botanical Magazine, and thus the species bears his name as the botanical authority. Later the plants collected by Elwes were found to actually be "G. gracilis" but the name was retained for a different specimen. The species is named in honour of Henry John Elwes. A native of the Caucasus, the species has been widely introduced. "G. elwesii" is grown as an ornamental plant in gardens where they easily naturalise. Bulbs planted in the autumn flower in the early spring. Propagation is by separation of bulbils after flowering. Galanthus elwesii Galanthus elwesii (Elwes's snowdrop, greater snowdrop) is one
Luzula nivalis considered L. nivalis to be conspecific with L. arctica, but some of them (Hultén 1968, Böcher et al. 1968) have used the name L. arctica, while the others (Porsild and Cody 1980...) [have used] the correct name L. nivalis.". Elven et al. (2003) also noted that "L. campestris" var. "nivalis" was widely considered to be conspecific with "L. arctica." The current botanical consensus seems to be that lectotypification solves the issue and that "L. arctica" and "L. nivalis" should be regarded as the same species, with the name "L. nivalis" being chosen as this (derived from "L. campestris" var. "nivalis")