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May lily

 

 

In spring the May lily only grows one leaf, the second and usually much smaller one comes immediately before flowering. A plant with no flowers and thus no fruits stays mournfully with the single leaf – probably this is the explanation to the Estonian name “leseleht”, widow’s leaf.

 

May lilies can be found in quite different habitats: wooded meadows, shrub thickets, in spruce, pine and mixed forests, on transition bog tufts; they are indeed common in Estonia. The whole plant is toxic, the shiny red berries too of course. In late autumn we do not notice them any longer, birds carry them away. The berries don’t lose their germination ability in the intestines.

 

The berries of the May lily, that belongs to the lily-of-the-valley family, are toxic to humans and have a similar active agent as those of the lily-of-the-valley:

http://looduskalender.ee/node/17847

 

The height of the May lily stays low – ten to twenty centimetres; lilies-of-the-valley are much taller.