In the past, it was believed that snowdrops originated in Britain. However, this plant is native to Europe and the Middle East. The first recorded cultivation of snowdrops in England is in the 16th century.
Snowdrop is a small genus of about 20 species in the Amaryllidaceae family. They had other names in early history. It was Carl Linnaeus, the famous Swedish botanist, who named the snowdrop the Galanthus nivalis, ‘milk flower of the snow’, in 1753.