Soldanella

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"Snowbell" redirects here. The distantly related genus Styrax is sometimes also called thus.

Soldanella
Soldanella alpina growing in eastern Austria
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae Division: Magnoliophyta Class: Magnoliopsida Order: Ericales Family: Primulaceae Genus: Soldanella L.
Species
Soldanella alpina Soldanella austriaca Soldanella carpatica Soldanella dimoniei Soldanella hungarica Soldanella minima Soldanella montana Soldanella pindicola Soldanella pusilla Soldanella villosa

The genus Soldanella, commonly known in English as snowbell, includes 10 species in the flowering plant family Primulaceae, native to European mountains, from the Pyrenees, the Apennines, the Alps, the Carpathians and the Balkans. They grow in damp pastures and rocky landscapes from 500-3,000 m above sea level, usually in hollows which hold snow long into the summer.

They typically have a basal rosette of simple, orbicular leaves 1-5 cm wide, with the flower stalks arising from the centre of the rosette, each stalk bearing 1-6 white to violet flowers.