Snowthorn

A thorned plant growing in West Beleriand, and especially on the lower slopes of Amon Rûdh, the Bald Hill, where its thick thorns guarded the way to Bar-en-Danwedh on the heights of the hill. It was said to resemble a larger variety of modern gorse, a plant with dense stems that are thickly laden with spines. Gorse has bright yellow flowers, but the flowers of the snowthorn of Beleriand were white in colour, giving the plant its association with snow.

The Elvish name for this plant was aeglos, which is essentially equivalent to English 'snowthorn', combining words for 'spike' and 'snow'. Aeglos was also the name of the Spear of Gil-galad, but there does not seem to be direct connection with the plant of the same name. The Spear's name is variously translated as 'snow-point' or 'icicle', suggesting that the resemblance of the names merely reflects a similar etymology between the sharp point of an icicle and the thorns and ice-white flowers of the snowthorn plant.