Double snowdrops
Double Snowdrops
In double flowers some or all of the other parts of have been replaced by petal like structures. This gives double flowers their characteristic tight pom-pom like appearance. Because the normal flower parts are missing, double flowers cannot usually set seed and the plants are therefore sterile.
The double form of nivalis is Galanthus nivalis flore pleno, widespread throughout Britain and with a cast-iron constitution which has rightly earned it an AGM (Award of Garden Merit) from the Royal Horticultural Society. The origin of the plant is unknown, but is was noted in Britain in the early 1700s and rapidly spread throughout the country. Although the plant cannot produce seed it produces appreciable quantities of functional pollen and by this means rapidly spread through the existing snowdrop population.
Because it spreads by pollen and then seed, each flore pleno is genetically different. If you examine them in a wild population you will find that all the flowers in one clump are very similar and yet slightly different from the flowers of adjacent clumps. The majority of forms of flore pleno have rather muddled, untidy flowers and tend to be looked down on. However when the flowers are more regular in their arrangement they can be very beatiful indeed.
Not only did flore pleno spread rapidly through the british nivalis population, they have also been successful in jumping the species barrier several times. Genetic investigation has shown that all double snowdrops have got their doubleness from flore pleno. Thus, although we think of Faringdon double and Lady B. Stanley as double forms of elwesii, they are in fact hybrids that received their double nature from nivalis flore pleno.
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