Vascular Plants of North Carolina

Account for European Lily-of-the-valley - Convallaria majalis L.

Section 5 » Order Liliales » Family Ruscaceae

Author	L.
Distribution	Mostly 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.
Abundance	Rare away from yards.
Habitat	Yards, mesic woods, "creek area" (Surry Co.).
Phenology	Flowering April - early June.
Identification	This 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 Comments	See the account for C. pseudomajalis.
Other Common Name(s)
State Rank	SE
Global Rank	G5
State Status
US Status
USACE-agcp
USACE-emp

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