European lily of the valley (Convallaria majalis)
Common Names: Lily-of-the-valleyDescription: Economic significance in the perfume and pharmaceutical industries; heart medication.
Habit: Herbaceous, rhizomatous, perennial, grows to 0.5-1 feet.
Leaves: 9 in long, 4 in across; more or less erect; dark green; oval-ovate; smooth along the margins; hairless; veins are parallel; leaf bases are attached to a short basal stalk with several sheaths; raceme is shorter than leaves; tends to nod at its apex; 6-14 flowers per raceme.
Stems: More or less erect; green and hairless.
Flowers: White in color, bell shaped, 1/3 in long and across, nod downward along one side, slender pedicel about 1/2 in long, 6 short lobes around the corolla, 6 stamen.
Fruit and seeds: Fruit is a red berry, up to 1/3 in across, globoid in shape, juicy and contains several seeds.
Habitat: Native to Europe. Found in tamarack bogs, rich deciduous woodlands, cemetery prairies, oak savannas near cemetery prairies, and former homestead sites.
Reproduction: By seed and vegetatively by rhizomes.
Similar species: American lily-of-the-valley (Convallaria majuscula).
Monitoring and rapid response: Hand-pulling or dig up for small infestations; effectively controlled using any of the several readily available general use herbicides such as glyphosate. Credits: The information provided in this factsheet was gathered from the USDA PLANTS Database.
Individual species images that appear with a number in a black box are courtesy of the Bugwood.org network (http://www.invasive.org).Individual photo author credits may not be included due to the small display size of the images and subsequent difficulty of reading the provided text. All other images appear courtesy of Google (http://images.google.com).