Convallaria majalis (Cultivated)

 

Images
by Gurcharan Singh (Id by Pankaj Kumar) (Inserted by J.M.Garg) (For more images & complete details,
click on the links) 

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Europe to Caucasus (as per WCSP)

Lily of the valley, sometimes written lily-of-the-valley,[1] scientific name Convallaria majalis /ˌkɒnvəˈlɛəriə məˈdʒeɪlᵻs/,[2] is a sweetly scented, highly poisonous woodland flowering plant that is native throughout the cool temperate Northern Hemisphere in Asia, and Europe.

Convallaria majalis is a herbaceous perennial plant that forms extensive colonies by spreading underground stems called rhizomes. New upright shoots are formed at the ends of stolons in summer,[4] these upright dormant stems are often called pips.[5] These grow in the spring into new leafy shoots that still remain connected to the other shoots under ground, often forming extensive colonies. The stems grow to 15–30 cm tall, with one or two leaves 10–25 cm long, flowering stems have two leaves and a raceme of 5–15 flowers on the stem apex.
The flowers have six white tepals (rarely pink), fused at the base to form a bell-shape, 5–10 mm diameter, and sweetly scented; flowering is in late spring, in mild winters in the Northern Hemisphere it is in early March. The fruit is a small orange-red berry 5–7 mm diameter that contains a few large whitish to brownish colored seeds that dry to a clear translucent round bead 1–3 mm wide. Plants are self-sterile, and colonies consisting of a single clone do not set seed.[6]
Convallaria majalis is a plant of partial shade, and mesophile type that prefers warm summers. It likes soils that are silty or sandy and acid to moderately alkaline,[11] with preferably a plentiful amount of humus.
(from Wikipedia on 11.4.16)
 

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20062012GS1 cultivated herb from Kashmir for Id: This small patch forming herb in shaded corner of Cheshmashahi garden in Srinagar, Kashmir, I thought would be an easy ID with plant reminding of Liliaceae, Hosta like leaves and Leucojum like flowers. It is only when I sat to identify, I realised the ovary is superior unlike Leucojum, and both perianth (in single whorl) and stamens are 5 each, putting me in dilemma. Any clues in identification please??

This looks like garden hybrid of Convallaria to me. May be Convallaria majalis. Beautiful pics.

Thanks a lot …, I think you are right. In fact seemingly 5 perianth and stamens had confused me.

Well this plant gave me maximum trouble in photography (which both you and … noticed independently, and gave me useful tips). In fact I visited this plant at least four times as none of my three cameras (Sony alpha, canon 550D and Panasonic lumix) gave satisfactory results. White seems to get blurred and merge in foliage. These are the best I could manage. A truly learning experience.

White is already so bright, so you must keep the aperture very low and at the same time go down to 1/250 shutter and use flash. If you have external flash then you can keep the hood of flash at higher angle and
not facing forward (in some good flashes like Nikon SB 910, you can rotate the hood sideways as well as up and down). Buying an external flash also helps in saving the battery from your camera.

 

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