Galanthus name for the feast day. The French name of "Violette de la Chandaleur" refers to Candlemas, while an Italian name, "Fiore della purificazone", refers to purification. The German name of "" (Little snow bells) also invokes the symbol of bells. In the Language of flowers, the "Snowdrop" is synonymous with 'Hope', as it blooms in early springtime, just before the vernal equinox, and so is seen as 'heralding' the new spring and new year. Galanthus Galanthus (snowdrop; Greek "gála" "milk", "ánthos" "flower") is a small genus of about 20 species of bulbous perennial herbaceous plants in the family Amaryllidaceae. The
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")