They are considered harbingers of spring: small white snowdrops that stretch their heads towards the first warm rays of sunshine after winter. However, anyone who not only enjoys the early bloomers on the side of the road but also wants to pick them as spring decorations for their home should be careful.

Because snowdrops are protected species in this country. Uprooting the flowers can be expensive. Depending on the federal state, picking snowdrops can result in a fine of up to 50,000 euros, as “t-online.de” reports.

The amount of the penalty depends on the extent of the taking. A penalty will also apply if wild snowdrops are dug up and buried again somewhere else.

This is how expensive picking snowdrops can be

Violating the ban on picking snowdrops may result in the following fines:

• Bavaria: at least 50 euros
• Brandenburg: at least 50 euros to 5000 euros
• Bremen: at least 50 euros to 20,000 euros
• Hamburg: at least 25 euros to 50,000 euros
• Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania: at least 50 euros
• Lower Saxony: at least 50 euros
• North Rhine-Westphalia: at least 25 euros
• Rhineland-Palatinate: at least €76.69 to €10,225.84
• Saarland: at least 50 euros
• Saxony: at least 50 euros
• Thuringia: at least 75 euros to 10,000 euros

Snowdrops are protected

In general, picking wild plants is prohibited in Germany according to the Federal Nature Conservation Act (BNatSchG). However, the manual bouquet rule under Section 39 Paragraph 3 BNatSchG states that plants must be carefully removed for private use.

However, you can only pick as many plants as can fit between your thumb and forefinger.

However, snowdrops do not fall under the hand bouquet rule because they are protected in Germany. The onion flowers originally come from Western Asia and Southeastern Europe and have no natural habitat in this country.

So they don’t occur naturally in Germany. If they were picked more frequently, it would endanger their existence. But many insects find the early bloomers as their first source of food of the year.

Snowdrops: Legally available as seeds or flower bulbs on the grocery store

By the way, snowdrops aren’t the only early bloomers that shouldn’t be picked. The same applies to lily of the valley and wood anemone, among others. These are also protected.

If you still don’t want to do without snowdrops or other early bloomers in your garden, you can buy them legally as seeds or as flower bulbs from a grocery store or specialist retailer and plant them at home.