POISONOUS BERRIES – autumn colours of lily-of-the-valley
Photo: Arne Ader
Translation: Liis
Lily-of-the-valley berries
Lily-of-the-valley Harilik maikelluke or piibeleht Convallaria majalis
The plant delights the eyes during its whole growing period, beginning with the flowering in June; the Finns haven’t chosen the lily-of-the-valley as their national flower without cause.
This year the lily-of-the-valley's orange-red fruits don’t seem to be very abundant. But all pretty things are not suitable to go into the pot either – so it is with the lily-of-the-valley. The whole plant is poisonous, not only the juicy and pretty fruits, in which two to six seeds are hidden; they are particularly toxic.
The whole plant is dangerously poisonous to all mammals, but insects can pollinate the flowers and birds can carry the seeds in their intestines to new habitats.
Distribution by birds is uncertain for the lily-of-the-valley and in a suitable habitat is expands through the spreading rhizome underground. Thus in the next year the growing space of the lilies-of-the-valley will once more be a little larger.
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