Galanthus nivalis the snow", referring either to the snow-like flower or the plant's early flowering. The common name snowdrop first appeared in the 1633 edition of John Gerard's "Great Herbal" (in the first edition (1597) he described it as the "Timely flowring Bulbus violet"). The derivation of the name is uncertain, although it may have come from the German word "Schneetropfen", which was a type of earring popular around that time. Other British traditional common names include "February fairmaids", "dingle-dangle", "Candlemas bells", "Mary's tapers" and, in parts of Yorkshire, "snow piercers" (like the French name ""). "Galanthus nivalis" is widely grown in
Chlamydomonas nivalis optimal position in the snow for moisture content, light, and temperature. When in the immotile cyst stage, the "C. nivalis" cells must depend on the flow of meltwater to move it by chance to a favourable area. The temperatures in which this species can survive in ranges from below 0 °C to just above 20 °C. Growth is slow when temperatures are below 5 °C. At 5-15 °C the growth of "C. nivalis" cells can outperform the growth of C. reinhardtii cells. Both species grow at the same rate at 20-25 °C. The growth of "C. nivalis" is suppressed when