Wild Lily of the Valley

 Wild Lily of the Valley

Here’s a shot from the foggy outing to the parkway a few weeks back. Sometimes, water drops and wetness are a photographic bonus, adding highlights missing when photographic conditions are “perfect”.

Sometimes worse is better.

This plant with a similar name should be distinguished from Lily of the Valley. Both species are lilies, I’m guessing the “wild” variety is native and the other, a European import long ago. I’ll have to check that out.

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fred
fred

Fred First holds masters degrees in Vertebrate Zoology and physical therapy, and has been a biology teacher and physical therapist by profession. He moved to southwest Virginia in 1975 and to Floyd County in 1997. He maintains a daily photo-blog, broadcasts essays on the Roanoke NPR station, and contributes regular columns for the Floyd Press and Roanoke's Star Sentinel. His two non-fiction books, Slow Road Home and his recent What We Hold in Our Hands, celebrate the riches that we possess in our families and communities, our natural bounty, social capital and Appalachian cultures old and new. He has served on the Jacksonville Center Board of Directors and is newly active in the Sustain Floyd organization. He lives in northeastern Floyd County on the headwaters of the Roanoke River.

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  1. Fred,

    I was in Concord, MA about a week ago and came up on the tiny little plants that you have pictured above (I think!) in trying to find out what they were, I searched through my books and in Wildflowers of the Southern Mountains, came up with what I think is a match (plate 34 maianthemum canadense.

    I did a search for maianthemum canadense and am pretty satisfied that that is what it is. Is it also known as wild lily-of-the-valley??? I also took another picture that day of a wild lily of the valley which was growing nearby.

  2. Thanks so much for posting this. I just found these lovelies last weekend and had a tough time deciding on who they were. Your picture is perfecto!

    Thanks for the help!