Vascular Plants of North Carolina
Section: Common Name: Scientific Name: Family:
Account for European Lily-of-the-valley - Convallaria majalis   L.
Members of Ruscaceae:
Members of Convallaria with account distribution info or public map:
Flora of SE USGoogle Images
Section 5 » Order Liliales » Family Ruscaceae
Show/Hide Synonym
AuthorL.
DistributionMostly the Piedmont, also Wilson and Onslow counties in the Coastal Plain. Other collections from Craven and Richmond counties were specifically from gardens and so are excluded here. A specimen from Stokes County (Hanging Rock State Park) appears to be the native species (C. pseudomajalis) -- a pleasantly embarrassing error.

Native of Europe; in N.A. frequently planted in the East and locally escaped.
AbundanceRare away from yards.
HabitatYards, mesic woods, "creek area" (Surry Co.).
PhenologyFlowering April - early June.
IdentificationThis is a familiar garden/yard wildflower, extremely similar to the native American Lily-of-the-valley (C. pseudomajalis), and the two have often been included within the same species by some authorities (as different taxa). However, this non-native species has the inflorescence bracts shorter and not very obvious, the leaves average shorter, and the flowering stalk is more than 1/2 as long as the leaves (vs. less than 1/2 as long as the leaves in the native species).
Taxonomic CommentsSee the account for C. pseudomajalis.

Other Common Name(s)
State RankSE
Global RankG5
State Status
US Status
USACE-agcp
USACE-emp
County Map - click on a county to view source of record.
Select a source
AllHerbaria
Select an occurrence type
AllCollection_non_natural