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Convallaria majalis
Also called European Lily Of The Valley, May Lily
A low woodland perennial that spreads by underground rhizomes to form dense colonies, grown for its fragrant white spring bells. Grow it in cool, shaded, moist soil; it is very poisonous if eaten.
Lily-of-the-valley (Convallaria majalis), also written as lily of the valley, is a woodland flowering plant with sweetly scented, pendent, bell-shaped white flowers borne in sprays in spring. It is native to Europe, Western Asia and Northern Asia.
The former varieties Convallaria majalis var. montana (native to eastern North America) and Convallaria majalis var. keiskei (native to eastern Asia), are now split as the separate species Convallaria pseudomajalis and Convallaria keiskei, respectively.
Roughly 38 different cardiac glycosides (cardenolides) – which are highly toxic if consumed by humans or animals – occur in the plant, including:
The scent of lily-of-the-valley, specifically the ligand bourgeonal, was once thought to attract mammalian sperm. The 2003 discovery of this phenomenon prompted research into odour reception, but a 2012 study demonstrated instead that at high concentrations, bourgeonal imitated the role of progesterone in stimulating sperm to swim (chemotaxis), a process unrelated to odour reception.
Convallaria majalis is a native of Europe, where it largely avoids the Mediterranean margin, and is also absent from Ireland as a native species, though is naturalised there.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Lily of the valley by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
Pet safety from the ASPCA toxic and non-toxic plant lists.
