Galanthus have gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit. A list of Irish cultivars can be found here Propagation is by offset bulbs, either by careful division of clumps in full growth ("in the green"), or removed when the plants are dormant, immediately after the leaves have withered; or by seeds sown either when ripe, or in spring. Professional growers and keen amateurs also use such methods as "twin-scaling" to increase the stock of choice cultivars quickly. Snowdrops contain an active lectin or agglutinin named GNA for "Galanthus nivalis" agglutinin. In 1995, Árpád Pusztai genetically modified potatoes with the
Chlamydomonas nivalis "C. nivalis" is complex, it also helps the algae exploit its niche and survive unfavourable conditions. As a result, "C. nivalis" is one of the best known and studied snow algae. When taking account of the photoprotective effect of its secondary carotenoid, astaxanthin, among the other adaptive mechanisms to its extreme habitat, it can be understood how "C. nivalis" became so dominant in microbial snow algae communities. Green motile offspring are produced in the spring and throughout the summer. They develop into red dormant cysts, the stage where this organism spends most of its life cycle, as the winter season