Elwe's Snowdrop

A quieter day, which started with a rather damp walk round Longthorpe Churchyard and Thorpe Wood. The churchyard, like many others, was filled with snowdrops, but unusually the majority were Woronow's Snowdrop. There was also a well-established clump of Elwe's Snowdrop, a rather large species with broad, hooded glaucous leaves.

Henry John Elwes was an all-round naturalist at a time when the world was open to the travelling collector - especially a British one. In early April 1874 he was in the mountains near Smyrna (modern Izmir) and came across the fine large snowdrop which was named after him, Galanthus elwesii. Before leaving Turkey he arranged for bulbs to be collected later in the season; the first of the many millions exported ever since.