What flower is this?
March 18, 2012 8:15 PM   Subscribe

FlowerFilter: What are these small white flowers?

I recognize the hyacinths and daffodils, but what are these small white flowers? They are in a bed, so I assume they were planted there intentionally, not volunteers. Thanks!
posted by at the crossroads to Home & Garden (13 answers total)
 
Looks like snowdrops.
posted by brina at 8:18 PM on March 18, 2012


Yep! Snowdrops.
posted by goggie at 8:19 PM on March 18, 2012 [1 favorite]


Response by poster: Wow! That was fast. Thank you.
posted by at the crossroads at 8:25 PM on March 18, 2012


My first though before even looking at the picture was snowdrops, but upon comparison, nope. (Chuck Testa). snow drops dangle down, and the leaves and stem grow out of the ground from the bulb. Your flower has leaves growing from the stem. I
posted by annsunny at 8:26 PM on March 18, 2012


Not a crocus either, for the same reasons.
posted by annsunny at 8:29 PM on March 18, 2012


Snowdrops. They actually melt the snow and come through it.
posted by wandering_not_lost at 9:07 PM on March 18, 2012


Hard to be sure, but might be a white scilla.
posted by cat_link at 9:11 PM on March 18, 2012 [1 favorite]


I don't think it's snowdrops. Flowers don't dangle, they have sepals instead of petal-like tepals, and narrowly dissected palmate leaves that come out of the stem, instead of grass-like leaves that arise from the ground (okay getting really nerdy here). It looks similar to one of our early-blooming PNW natives Cardamine nuttallii. I've never seen it planted in a bed before, but there are a lot more people planting natives these days!
posted by feidr2 at 9:53 PM on March 18, 2012


Snowdrops would have leaves and flower stalks coming from the same place. These appear to have the flower stalk and leaves connected.
posted by Solomon at 12:36 AM on March 19, 2012


In terms of the other small flowers of early spring, these are not snowdrops (galanthus), pushkinia or chionadoxa. As others have mentioned, the leaves are wrong for these.
posted by sciencegeek at 2:13 AM on March 19, 2012


I think they are Star of Bethlehem...I have them in my yard and they spread like wildfire. Also, I've read that they can be toxic to animals that eat them but I haven't confirmed that.
posted by victoriab at 6:56 AM on March 19, 2012


They are not Star of Bethlehem (ornithogalum) - the leaves are wrong.

They're not monocots, they're dicots.
posted by sciencegeek at 2:53 AM on March 20, 2012


It looks like Scilla mischtschenkoana I think.
posted by Anitanola at 8:01 PM on March 20, 2012


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