Convallaria majalis, commonly known as Lily of the Valley, is a poisonous woodland flowering plant with sweetly scented, pendent, bell-shaped white flowers. Other names for C. majalis 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 Greek legend that it was discovered by the god, Apollo).
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" in Song of Songs 2:1, of the Old Testament. European herbalists' use of the phrase to refer to a specific plant species seems to have appeared relatively late in the 15th or ealry in the 16th century. The New Latin term convallaria (coined by Carl Linnaeus) and Swedish name liljekonvalj derives from the corresponding phrase lilium convallium in the Vulgate.
In the APG III system, the genus is placed in the family Asparagaceae, subfamily Nolinoideae (formerly the family Ruscaceae). It was formerly placed in its own family Convallariaceae, or earlier, like many lilioid monocots, in the lily family Liliaceae. There are three varieties that have sometimes been separated out as distinct species or subspecies by some botanists; C. majalis var. keiskei (found in China and Japan, with red fruit and bowl shaped flowers), C. majalis var. majalis (found in Eurasia, with white midribs on the flowers), and C. majalis var. montana (found in the US, with green tinted midribs on the flowers).
Convallaria majalis is native to Europe, where is largely avoids the Mediterranean and Atlantic margins. An eastern variety, C. majalis var. keiskei occurs in Japan and parts of eastern Asia. A limited native population of C. majalis var. montana occurs in the eastern United States. There is, however, some debate as to the native status of the American variety.
Convallaria majalis is an herbaceous perennial plant that often forms extensive colonies by spreading underground stems called rhizomes. New upright shoots are formed at the ends of stolons in summer. These upright dormant stems are often called pips. The pips will grow into new leafy shoots, in the Spring, that remain connected to the other shoots under ground. The stems grow to 15-30cm tall, with one or two 10-25cm long leaves. Flowering stems have two leaves and a raceme of five to fifteen flowers on the stem apex. C. majalis flowers in late Spring; with mild winters in the Northern Hemisphere flowering can occur as early as March. The flowers, which are usually 5-10mm in diameter, have six white (rarely pink) tepals, fused at the base to form a bell shape and are sweetly scented. C. majalis produces a small orange-red berry that is 5-7mm in diameter, which contains a few large whitish to brownish colored seeds that dry to a clear/translucent round bead 1-3mm in diameter. C. majalis, like many perennial plants plants, exhibits dual reproductive modes by producing offspring asexually by vegetative means and by seed produced via the fusion of gametes. Individual plants are self-sterile and require both male and female plants to produce seeds. Colonies consisting of a single clone do not set seed.
Convallaria majalis prefers partial shade and warm summers. It likes soils that are silty or sandy and acid to moderately alkaline, with preferably a plentiful amount of humus. The Royal Horticultural Society states that slightly alkaline soils are the most favored. It is a Euroasiatic and suboceanic species that lives in mountains up to 1,500m elevation.
C. majalis is used as a food plant by the larvae of some moth and butterfly species, including the Grey Chi. Adults and larvae of the leaf beetle, Lilioceris merdigera are also able to tolerate the cardenolides and feed on the leaves. Due to its dense content of cardiac glycosides, all parts of the plant are highly poisonous if consumed by humans or domestic animals, including the red berries which may be attractive to children. If ingested, the plant can cause abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, and irregular heart beats.
Convallaria majalis is widely grown in gardens for its scented flowers and ground covering abilities in shady locations. In favorable conditions it can form large colonies. It has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit. Various kinds and cultivars are grown, including those with double flowers, rose-colored flowers, variegated foliage and ones that grow larger than the typical species. These varieties include; "Albostriata" (white striped leaves), variegated varieties such as "Green Tapestry", "Haldon Grange", "Hardwick Hall", "Hofheim", "Marcel", "Variegata", and "Vic Pawlowski's Gold", larger growing varieties such as "Berlin Giant", and "Géant de Fortin", double flowered varieties such as "Flore Pleno", and varieties with pink flowers such as "Rosea". Traditionally Convallaria majalis has been grown in pots and forced to provide flowers during the winter months, both for as potted plants and as cut flowers.
C. majalis has been used in the creation of many items and within many different industries, from cosmetics to ancient medicine. In 1956, the French firm Dior produced a fragrance simulating lily of the valley, which was Christian Dior's favorite flower. Diorissimo was designed by Edmond Roudnitska. Although it has since been reformulated, it is still considered a classic. 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).
Lily of the valley has been used in weddings and can be very expensive. It was featured in the bridal bouquet at the wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton and also the flower chosen by Princess Grace of Monaco to be featured in her bridal bouquet. In the "language of flowers", the lily of the valley signifies the return of happiness.
The plant has been used in folk medicine for centuries, although there is no scientific evidence that lily of the valley has any effective medicinal uses for treating human diseases.
At the beginning of the 20th century, it became tradition in France to sell lily of the valley on international Labor Day, May 1st (also called La Fête du Muguet (Lily of the Valley Day), by labor organizations 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, May 8th, each year, 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 Cadwith, near Helston) called "Lily of the Valley"; the song, strangely, came from the Jubilee Singers from Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee.
Convallaria majalis is the national flower of Yugoslavia, and it also became the national flower of Finland in 1967.
Article excerpt is from Wikipedia.org under the Creative Commons License.
Image reused under the GNU Free Documentation License.
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