Spring snowflake or Snowdrop: how to tell them apart?
Spring snowflake and Snowdrop look alike and are often mixed up. Here is how to tell them apart, feature by feature, with their photos and the details to look for.
⚡ The quick answer
Spring snowflake
Leucojum vernum
Snowdrop
Galanthus nivalis
Spring snowflake looks like the snowdrop but flowers a little later and has petals all of equal size (each marked with a small green or yellow spot at the tip), whereas the snowdrop has 3 large white outer segments joined together and 3 small inner segments marked with green. Compare the flowering period too: the snowdrop is almost always the first of the two to flower.
🍃 Leaves
Strap-like, glossy green, appearing with the flowers
Narrow, linear, upright, blue-green leaves emerging from the ground at the same time as the flower.
🌸 Flowers
Nodding white bells, petals marked with a green or yellow spot at the tip
A single drooping, bell-shaped white flower per stem, made up of 3 large white outer tepals and 3 shorter inner tepals marked with green at the tip.
🍎 Fruits
Small fleshy capsules
Small green capsule containing seeds with a fleshy appendage favoured by ants, which disperse them.
🪵 Bark
Underground bulb, single flower stalk
Bulbous plant with no bark, short flowering stem 10-15 cm tall.
📏 Size
15 to 20 cm tall
10 to 15 cm tall.
🗺️ Habitat
Damp woodland, gardens, riverbanks, moist soils
Open woodland, damp meadows and gardens, often naturalised in carpets; flowers from late winter.
⚠️ Toxicity
Bulb toxic if eaten (alkaloids), like other members of the amaryllis family.
Toxic if ingested: the bulb, and to a lesser extent the whole plant, contains alkaloids (lycorine, galantamine) causing nausea, vomiting and digestive upset.
🔎 And from the Snowdrop side
Spring snowflake resembles snowdrop but flowers a little later and has tepals all of equal size (each marked with a small green or yellow spot at the tip), whereas snowdrop has 3 large plain white outer tepals and 3 small inner tepals marked with green. Also compare the flowering time: snowdrop is almost always the first of the two to flower.
🌿 Go further
Want to practise spotting these details on real photos? Floraneo offers profiles and quizzes for dozens of look-alike species.
ℹ️ Educational profile — do not use it to judge whether a plant is edible or safe.