In 1994 an unidentified snowdrop was found in Turkey by Neriman Özhatay, Andrew Byfield and Margaret Johnson. The plants grown from seed collected during this survey flowered for the first time in 1997 at the Royal Botanic Garden in Kew, a district in south-west London.
It soon became clear that these plants could not be assigned to any previously known type of snowdrop. In 2001 the description of Galanthus trojanus was published. The name refers to the growing area in the eastern part of the Troas landscape, which surrounded the ancient city of Troy. Today the area is part of the Turkish province of Çanakkale.
Galanthus trojanus is a very fascinating species, because recent molecular phylogenetic studies have shown that this snowdrop split off from the other representatives of the genus Galanthus rather early in their evolutionary history. This snowdrop has only a small habitat, is extremely rare and therefore practically not available on the market.