Chionodoxa

Chionodoxa
Glory-of-the-snow in the snow
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Clade:	Angiosperms
Clade:	Monocots
Order:	Asparagales
Family:	Asparagaceae
Subfamily:	Scilloideae
Genus:	Chionodoxa Boiss.
Species
See text.

See text.

Chionodoxa, known as glory-of-the-snow, is a small genus of bulbous perennial flowering plants in the family Asparagaceae, subfamily Scilloideae, often included in Scilla. The genus is endemic to the eastern Mediterranean, specifically Crete, Cyprus and Turkey. The blue, white or pink flowers appear early in the year making them valuable garden ornamentals. The common name of the genus is based on the habit of flowering in high alpine zones when the snow melts in spring.

Chionodoxa is distinguished from the closely related genus Scilla by two features: the tepals are joined at their bases to form a tube rather than being free; and the stamens have flattened stalks (filaments), which look almost like a cup in the centre of the flower. These differences are not considered by some botanists as sufficient to create a separate genus, and Chionodoxa species are often included in Scilla.Chionodoxa is also not recognised as a separate genus from Scilla by the World Checklist of Selected Plant Families, or the Angiosperm Phylogeny Website.

The taxonomy of the genus is confused. Several of the species are very similar, and the number of species recognized as distinct varies significantly from one source to another. For example, plants occurring in Crete have at one time or another been put into three species: C. albescens, C. cretica and C. nana. Sfikas' Wild flowers of Crete recognizes only two of these (C. cretica and C. nana); the Natural History Museum's checklist of the Cretan Flora recognizes only one (C. nana, as Scilla nana). The Royal Horticultural Society distinguishes between C. forbesii and C. siehei; other botanists recognize only C. forbesii.

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