Health is the Flora of Today: Lily of the Valley

 

Lily of the Valley

Lily of the valley (Convallaria majalis) sometimes written lily-of-the-valley

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)

Convallaria majalis is a herbaceous perennial plant 

It is native throughout the cool temperate Northern Hemisphere

The plant forms extensive colonies by spreading underground stems called rhizomes

This is a woodland flowering plant with sweetly scented, pendent, bell-shaped white flowers 

These flowers are borne in sprays in spring 

The flowers have six white tepals (rarely pink), fused at the base to form a bell shape, 5–10 mm (0.2–0.4 in) diameter, and sweetly scented; flowering is in late spring

Due to the concentration of cardiac glycosides it is highly poisonous if consumed