HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Lily of the valley (''Convallaria majalis'' (), sometimes written lily-of-the-valley, is a woodland
flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. They include all forbs (flowering plants without a woody stem), grasses and grass-like plants, a vast majority of ...
with sweetly scented, pendent, bell-shaped white flowers borne in sprays in spring. It is native throughout the cool temperate Northern Hemisphere in Asia and Europe. ''Convallaria majalis'' var. ''montana'', also known as the American lily of the valley, is native to North America. Due to the concentration of
cardiac glycoside Cardiac glycosides are a class of organic compounds that increase the output force of the heart and decrease its rate of contractions by inhibiting the cellular sodium-potassium ATPase pump. Their beneficial medical uses are as treatments for co ...
s (cardenolides), it is highly
poison Poison is a chemical substance that has a detrimental effect to life. The term is used in a wide range of scientific fields and industries, where it is often specifically defined. It may also be applied colloquially or figuratively, with a broa ...
ous if consumed by humans or other animals. Other names include May bells, Our Lady's tears, and Mary's tears. Its French name, ''muguet'', sometimes appears in the names of perfumes imitating the flower's scent. In pre-modern England, the plant was known as glovewort (as it was a wort used to create a salve for sore hands), or Apollinaris (according to a legend that it was discovered by
Apollo Apollo, grc, Ἀπόλλωνος, Apóllōnos, label=genitive , ; , grc-dor, Ἀπέλλων, Apéllōn, ; grc, Ἀπείλων, Apeílōn, label=Arcadocypriot Greek, ; grc-aeo, Ἄπλουν, Áploun, la, Apollō, la, Apollinis, label= ...
).


Description

''Convallaria majalis'' is an
herbaceous Herbaceous plants are vascular plants that have no persistent woody stems above ground. This broad category of plants includes many perennials, and nearly all annuals and biennials. Definitions of "herb" and "herbaceous" The fourth edition ...
perennial plant A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives more than two years. The term ('' per-'' + '' -ennial'', "through the years") is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annuals and biennials. The term is also wide ...
that often forms extensive colonies by spreading underground
stem Stem or STEM may refer to: Plant structures * Plant stem, a plant's aboveground axis, made of vascular tissue, off which leaves and flowers hang * Stipe (botany), a stalk to support some other structure * Stipe (mycology), the stem of a mushr ...
s called rhizomes. New upright shoots are formed at the ends of
stolon In biology, stolons (from Latin '' stolō'', genitive ''stolōnis'' – "branch"), also known as runners, are horizontal connections between organisms. They may be part of the organism, or of its skeleton; typically, animal stolons are external ...
s in summer, these upright dormant stems are often called pips. These grow in the spring into new leafy shoots that still remain connected to the other shoots under ground. The stems grow to tall, with one or two leaves long; flowering stems have two leaves and a
raceme A raceme ( or ) or racemoid is an unbranched, indeterminate type of inflorescence bearing flowers having short floral stalks along the shoots that bear the flowers. The oldest flowers grow close to the base and new flowers are produced as the sh ...
of five to fifteen
flower A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants (plants of the division Angiospermae). The biological function of a flower is to facilitate reproduction, usually by providing a mechanism ...
s on the stem apex. The flowers have six white
tepal A tepal is one of the outer parts of a flower (collectively the perianth). The term is used when these parts cannot easily be classified as either sepals or petals. This may be because the parts of the perianth are undifferentiated (i.e. of very ...
s (rarely pink), fused at the base to form a bell shape, diameter, and sweetly scented; flowering is in late spring, in mild winters in the Northern Hemisphere it is in early March. The
fruit In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants that is formed from the ovary after flowering. Fruits are the means by which flowering plants (also known as angiosperms) disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits in partic ...
is a small orange-red
berry A berry is a small, pulpy, and often edible fruit. Typically, berries are juicy, rounded, brightly colored, sweet, sour or tart, and do not have a stone or pit, although many pips or seeds may be present. Common examples are strawberries, rasp ...
diameter that contains a few large whitish to brownish colored seeds that dry to a clear translucent round bead wide. Plants are self-incompatible, and colonies consisting of a single clone do not set seed.


Taxonomy

In the
APG III system The APG III system of flowering plant classification is the third version of a modern, mostly molecular-based, system of plant taxonomy being developed by the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group (APG). Published in 2009, it was superseded in 2016 by a fu ...
, the genus is placed in the
family Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...
Asparagaceae Asparagaceae, known as the asparagus family, is a family of flowering plants, placed in the order Asparagales of the monocots. The family name is based on the edible garden asparagus, '' Asparagus officinalis''. Those who live in the temperate ...
, subfamily Nolinoideae (formerly the family Ruscaceae). It was formerly placed in its own family Convallariaceae, and, like many
lilioid monocots Lilioid monocots (lilioids, liliid monocots, petaloid monocots, petaloid lilioid monocots) is an informal name used for a grade (grouping of taxa with common characteristics) of five monocot orders ( Petrosaviales, Dioscoreales, Pandanales, ...
, before that in the lily family
Liliaceae The lily family, Liliaceae, consists of about 15 genera and 610 species of flowering plants within the order Liliales. They are monocotyledonous, perennial, herbaceous, often bulbous geophytes. Plants in this family have evolved with a f ...
. There are three varieties that have sometimes been separated out as distinct species or subspecies by some botanists. *''Convallaria majalis'' var. ''keiskei'' – from China and Japan, with red fruit and bowl-shaped flowers (now widely cited as ''Convallaria keiskei'') *''C. majalis'' var. ''majalis'' – from Eurasia, with white midribs on the flowers *''C. majalis'' var. ''montana'' – from the United States, maybe with green-tinted midribs on the flowers ''Convallaria transcaucasica'' is recognised as a distinct species by some authorities, while the species formerly called ''Convallaria japonica'' is now classified as '' Ophiopogon japonicus''.


Distribution

''Convallaria majalis'' is a native of Europe, where it largely avoids the
Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on th ...
and
Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the "Old World" of Africa, Europe an ...
margins. An eastern variety, ''C. majalis'' var. ''keiskei'' occurs in Japan and parts of
eastern Asia East Asia is the eastern region of Asia, which is defined in both geographical and ethno-cultural terms. The modern states of East Asia include China, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan. China, North Korea, South Korea a ...
. A limited native population of ''C. majalis'' var. ''montana'' (synonym ''C. majuscula'') occurs in the
Eastern United States The Eastern United States, commonly referred to as the American East, Eastern America, or simply the East, is the region of the United States to the east of the Mississippi River. In some cases the term may refer to a smaller area or the East C ...
. There is, however, some debate as to the native status of the American variety. Like many perennial flowering plants, ''C. majalis'' exhibits dual reproductive modes by producing offspring asexually by vegetative means and by seed, produced via the fusion of gametes.


Ecology

''Convallaria majalis'' is a plant of partial shade, and
mesophile A mesophile is an organism that grows best in moderate temperature, neither too hot nor too cold, with an optimum growth range from . The optimum growth temperature for these organisms is 37°C. The term is mainly applied to microorganisms. Organi ...
type that prefers warm summers. It likes
soil Soil, also commonly referred to as earth or dirt, is a mixture of organic matter, minerals, gases, liquids, and organisms that together support life. Some scientific definitions distinguish ''dirt'' from ''soil'' by restricting the former ...
s that are silty or sandy and acid to moderately alkaline, with preferably a plentiful amount of
humus In classical soil science, humus is the dark organic matter in soil that is formed by the decomposition of plant and animal matter. It is a kind of soil organic matter. It is rich in nutrients and retains moisture in the soil. Humus is the Lati ...
. The
Royal Horticultural Society The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), founded in 1804 as the Horticultural Society of London, is the UK's leading gardening charity. The RHS promotes horticulture through its five gardens at Wisley (Surrey), Hyde Hall (Essex), Harlow Carr (No ...
states that slightly alkaline soils are the most favored. It is a Euroasiatic and suboceanic species that lives in mountains up to elevation. ''Convallaria majalis'' is used as a food plant by the
larva A larva (; plural larvae ) is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into adults. Animals with indirect development such as insects, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase of their life cycle. Th ...
e of some
moth Moths are a paraphyletic group of insects that includes all members of the order Lepidoptera that are not butterflies, with moths making up the vast majority of the order. There are thought to be approximately 160,000 species of moth, many of ...
and
butterfly Butterflies are insects in the macrolepidopteran clade Rhopalocera from the order Lepidoptera, which also includes moths. Adult butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight. The group comprises ...
( Lepidoptera) species including the grey chi. Adults and larvae of the leaf beetle '' Lilioceris merdigera'' are also able to tolerate the
cardenolide A cardenolide is a type of steroid. Many plants contain derivatives, collectively known as cardenolides, including many in the form of cardenolide glycosides (cardenolides that contain structural groups derived from sugars). Cardenolide glycosid ...
s and thus feed on the leaves.


Cultivation

''Convallaria majalis'' is widely grown in
garden A garden is a planned space, usually outdoors, set aside for the cultivation, display, and enjoyment of plants and other forms of nature. The single feature identifying even the wildest wild garden is ''control''. The garden can incorporate bot ...
s for its scented flowers and ground-covering abilities in shady locations. It has gained the
Royal Horticultural Society The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), founded in 1804 as the Horticultural Society of London, is the UK's leading gardening charity. The RHS promotes horticulture through its five gardens at Wisley (Surrey), Hyde Hall (Essex), Harlow Carr (No ...
's
Award of Garden Merit The Award of Garden Merit (AGM) is a long-established annual award for plants by the British Royal Horticultural Society (RHS). It is based on assessment of the plants' performance under UK growing conditions. History The Award of Garden Merit ...
. In favourable conditions it can form large colonies. Various kinds and
cultivar A cultivar is a type of cultivated plant that people have selected for desired traits and when propagated retain those traits. Methods used to propagate cultivars include: division, root and stem cuttings, offsets, grafting, tissue culture ...
s are grown, including those with double flowers, rose-colored flowers, variegated foliage and ones that grow larger than the typical species. *''C. majalis'' 'Albostriata' has white-striped leaves *''C. majalis'' 'Green Tapestry', 'Haldon Grange', 'Hardwick Hall', 'Hofheim', 'Marcel', 'Variegata' and 'Vic Pawlowski's Gold' are other variegated cultivars *''C. majalis'' 'Berlin Giant' and ''C. majalis'' 'Géant de Fortin' (syn. 'Fortin's Giant') are larger-growing cultivars *''C. majalis'' 'Flore Pleno' has double flowers. *''C. majalis'' 'Rosea' sometimes found under the name ''C. majalis'' var. ''rosea'', has pink flowers. Traditionally ''Convallaria majalis'' has been grown in pots and winter forced to provide flowers during the winter months, both for as potted plants and as
cut flowers Cut flowers are flowers or flower buds (often with some stem and leaf) that have been cut from the plant bearing it. It is usually removed from the plant for decorative use. Typical uses are in vase displays, wreaths and garlands. Many ga ...
.


Chemistry

Roughly 38 different
cardiac glycoside Cardiac glycosides are a class of organic compounds that increase the output force of the heart and decrease its rate of contractions by inhibiting the cellular sodium-potassium ATPase pump. Their beneficial medical uses are as treatments for co ...
s (cardenolides) – which are highly toxic if consumed by humans or animals – occur in the plant, including: The odor of lily of the valley, specifically the ligand
bourgeonal Bourgeonal is an aromatic aldehyde used in perfumery. It has a fragrance reminiscent of lily of the valley, otherwise described as floral, watery, green and aldehydic. It is a pale yellow liquid at room temperature. It is toxic if swallowed and c ...
, was thought to attract mammalian sperm. The 2003 discovery of this phenomenon prompted research into odor reception, but a 2012 study demonstrated instead that at high concentrations, bourgeonal imitated the role of
progesterone Progesterone (P4) is an endogenous steroid and progestogen sex hormone involved in the menstrual cycle, pregnancy, and embryogenesis of humans and other species. It belongs to a group of steroid hormones called the progestogens and is the ma ...
in stimulating sperm to swim ( chemotaxis), a process unrelated to odor reception.


Toxicology

All parts of the plant are potentially
poison Poison is a chemical substance that has a detrimental effect to life. The term is used in a wide range of scientific fields and industries, where it is often specifically defined. It may also be applied colloquially or figuratively, with a broa ...
ous, including the red berries which may be attractive to children. If ingested, the plant can cause abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, and irregular heartbeats.


Uses


Perfume

In 1956, the French firm
Dior Christian Dior SE (), commonly known as Dior (stylized DIOR), is a French luxury fashion house controlled and chaired by French businessman Bernard Arnault, who also heads LVMH, the world's largest luxury group. Dior itself holds 42.36% shar ...
produced a fragrance simulating lily of the valley, which was
Christian Dior Christian Ernest Dior (; 21 January 1905 – 24 October 1957) was a French fashion designer, best known as the founder of one of the world's top fashion houses, Christian Dior SE, which is now owned by parent company LVMH. His fashion houses a ...
's favorite flower. Diorissimo was designed by Edmond Roudnitska."Lily of the Valley Perfumes"
''Vogue'' slideshow.
Although it has since been reformulated, it is considered a classic. Because no natural aromatic extract can be produced from lily of the valley, its scent must be recreated synthetically; while Diorissimo originally achieved this with hydroxycitronellal, the
European Chemicals Agency The European Chemicals Agency (ECHA; ) is an agency of the European Union which manages the technical and administrative aspects of the implementation of the European Union regulation called Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restrict ...
now considers it a skin sensitizer and its use has been restricted. Other perfumes imitating or based on the flower include Henri Robert's Muguet de Bois (1936), Penhaligon's Lily of the Valley (1976), and Olivia Giacobetti's En Passant (2000).


Weddings and other celebrations

Lily of the valley has been used in weddings and off-season can be very expensive.Lily of the Valley Stars in Royal Bridal Bouquet
/ref> Lily of the valley was featured in the bridal bouquet at the
wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton The wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton took place on Friday, 29 April 2011 at Westminster Abbey in London, England. The groom was second in the line of succession to the British throne. The couple had been in a relationship si ...
. Lily of the valley was also the flower chosen by Princess Grace of Monaco to be featured in her bridal bouquet. At the beginning of the 20th century, it became tradition in France to sell lily of the valley on international
Labour Day Labour Day (''Labor Day'' in the United States) is an annual holiday to celebrate the achievements of workers. Labour Day has its origins in the labour union movement, specifically the eight-hour day movement, which advocated eight hours fo ...
, 1 May (also called ''La Fête du Muguet'' (Lily of the Valley Day) by labour organisations and private persons without paying sales tax (on that day only) as a symbol of spring. Lily of the valley is worn in Helston (Cornwall, UK) on Flora Day (8 May each year, see Furry Dance) representing the coming of "the May-o" and the summer. There is also a song sung in pubs around Cornwall (and on Flora Day in Cadgwith, near Helston) called "Lily of the Valley"; the song, strangely, came from the Jubilee Singers from Fisk University in
Nashville, Tennessee Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and t ...
.


Folk medicine

The plant has been used in
folk medicine Traditional medicine (also known as indigenous medicine or folk medicine) comprises medical aspects of traditional knowledge that developed over generations within the folk beliefs of various societies, including indigenous peoples, before the ...
for centuries. There is a reference to "Lilly of the valley water" in
Robert Louis Stevenson Robert Louis Stevenson (born Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson; 13 November 1850 – 3 December 1894) was a Scottish novelist, essayist, poet and travel writer. He is best known for works such as '' Treasure Island'', '' Strange Case of Dr Jekyll ...
's novel Kidnapped where it is said to be "good against the Gout", and that it "comforts the heart and strengthens the memory" and "restores speech to those that have the dumb palsey". There is no
scientific evidence Scientific evidence is evidence that serves to either support or counter a scientific theory or hypothesis, although scientists also use evidence in other ways, such as when applying theories to practical problems. "Discussions about empirical e ...
that lily of the valley has any effective medicinal uses for treating human diseases.


Cultural symbolism

The lily of the valley was the national flower of
Yugoslavia Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label= Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavij ...
, and it also became the national flower of
Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bo ...
in 1967. In the " language of flowers", the lily of the valley signifies the return of happiness.


Myths

The name "lily of the valley", like its correspondences in some other European languages, is apparently a reference to the phrase "lily of the valleys" (sometimes also translated as "lily of the valley") in Song of Songs 2:1 (). European herbalists' use of the phrase to refer to a specific plant species seems to have appeared relatively late in the 16th or 15th century.Keil, Gundolf. „Es hat vnser libe fraw gesprochen in dem puch der libe: ‚Ich pin ein plvm des tals vnd auch des grvnen waldes‘“: Die Einführung der Convallarin-Glykoside als Hinweis auf mährisch-schlesische Provenienz. In: Iva Kratochvilová, Lenka Vaňková (Hrsg.): ''Germanistik im Spiegel der Generationen. Festschrift Zdeněk Masařík.'' Opava/ Ostrava 2004, S. 72–132. The
New Latin New Latin (also called Neo-Latin or Modern Latin) is the revival of Literary Latin used in original, scholarly, and scientific works since about 1500. Modern scholarly and technical nomenclature, such as in zoological and botanical taxonomy ...
term ''convallaria'' (coined by
Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, ...
) and, for example, Swedish name ' derives from the corresponding phrase ''lilium convallium'' in the
Vulgate The Vulgate (; also called (Bible in common tongue), ) is a late-4th-century Bible translations into Latin, Latin translation of the Bible. The Vulgate is largely the work of Jerome who, in 382, had been commissioned by Pope Damasus&nbs ...
.


In culture

* It is widely represented in
decorative arts ] The decorative arts are arts or crafts whose object is the design and manufacture of objects that are both beautiful and functional. It includes most of the arts making objects for the interiors of buildings, and interior design, but not usua ...
. * The flower is the theme of the titular poem by
Paul Laurence Dunbar Paul Laurence Dunbar (June 27, 1872 – February 9, 1906) was an American poet, novelist, and short story writer of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Born in Dayton, Ohio, to parents who had been enslaved in Kentucky before the American C ...
. *
Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky , group=n ( ; 7 May 1840 – 6 November 1893) was a Russian composer of the Romantic period. He was the first Russian composer whose music would make a lasting impression internationally. He wrote some of the most pop ...
wrote the poem "Lilies of the Valley" (Ландыши) in December 1878 while in
Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico ...
. * In
Anton Chekhov Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (; 29 January 1860Old Style date 17 January. – 15 July 1904Old Style date 2 July.) was a Russian playwright and short-story writer who is considered to be one of the greatest writers of all time. His career a ...
's " A Doctor's Visit" drops of convallaria are mentioned as medicine. * "Lilies of the Valley" is a 1916
Marc Chagall Marc Chagall; russian: link=no, Марк Заха́рович Шага́л ; be, Марк Захаравіч Шагал . (born Moishe Shagal; 28 March 1985) was a Russian-French artist. An early modernist, he was associated with several major ...
painting. * The 46th episode of the television series
Breaking Bad ''Breaking Bad'' is an American crime drama television series created and produced by Vince Gilligan. Set and filmed in Albuquerque, New Mexico, the series follows Walter White ( Bryan Cranston), an underpaid, overqualified, and dispirited ...
showcases the lily of the valley's use as a poison. * In 2022 the lily of the valley, as reputedly Queen Elizabeth II's favourite flower, was the theme of a poem "Floral Tribute" by the poet laureate, Simon Armitage, written in memory of the Queen and published in the week after her death.


Gallery

File:Convallaria-oliv-r2.jpg, Convallaria close-up File:Convallaria majalis Kemi, Finland 02.06.2013.jpg, Convallarias in Kemi in early June File:Stamp of Moldova 429.gif, Moldovan stamp File:Pennä reverse Anu 1990.jpg, Finnish 10 penny coin with the Convallaria engraving File:1 of May, 1851.jpg, 1 May, by
Franz Xaver Winterhalter Franz Xaver Winterhalter (20 April 1805 – 8 July 1873) was a German painter and lithographer, known for his flattering portraits of royalty and upper-class society in the mid-19th century. His name has become associated with fashionable court ...
File:Lunner komm.svg, Lunner (Norway) municipal coat of arms


See also

* List of plants known as lily


References


External links


Invasive Plant Atlas
– US Distribution Map
''Convallaria majalis'' fact sheet
– NC Cooperative Extension {{Authority control Flora of Europe Flora of temperate Asia Flora of the Southeastern United States Flora of Myanmar Flora of West Virginia Garden plants of Asia Garden plants of Europe Garden plants of North America Medicinal plants Nolinoideae Plants described in 1753 Poisonous plants