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Toxic☠️ To avoid

🔔 Lily of the Valley

Convallaria majalis · Asparagaceae

🌳 Temperate Europe🌲 Boreal
🧠 To remember it"Pretty little bell, heart takes a spell": the May Day fragrance hides a cardiac poison, even in its water.
Lily of the Valley — Convallaria majalis

🔍 Identify it without mistakes

Small understory perennial well known for its fragrant white bell-shaped flowers borne in a cluster on a leafless stalk, nestled between two large lance-shaped leaves emerging directly from the ground. The entire plant is toxic, including the vase water in which it is placed—a classic trap for young children.

  1. two sheathing, lance-shaped leaves arising directly from the rhizome, with no apparent stem
  2. a leafless flowering stalk carrying 5 to 13 small, drooping, highly fragrant white bells
  3. spherical orange-red berries in late summer, which are also toxic
  4. characteristic sweet scent of the flowers
Size15-25 cm
FloweringApril-May, berries July-September
Habitatcool understory, beech forests, shaded banks

⚠️ Not to be confused with

Wild garlic / Ramsons (before flowering) (Allium ursinum)aucun pour l'ail des ours

To tell them apart: wild garlic gives off a strong garlic smell when crushed, while lily of the valley has none; lily of the valley leaves are sheathed at the base without a distinct stalk, whereas wild garlic leaves have a clear petiole

Ramps / Wild leek (Allium tricoccum)toxique (cardiotoxique)

To tell them apart: lily of the valley has NO garlic or onion odor when crushed—this is the decisive field test to perform systematically before any harvest

☠️ What kills

nomCardiac glycosides (convallatoxin, convallamarin, and related compounds)
dose letale estimeerarely fatal in adults from accidental ingestion; in young children, ingesting several berries or vase water can cause significant cardiac toxicity (approx, no precise threshold established)
delai1 to 3 h
symptomesnausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, followed in severe cases by heart rhythm disturbances (bradycardia, arrhythmias) and confusion
antidoteno routine antidote available in standard practice; cardiac monitoring and symptomatic treatment
morts documenteessevere cases documented mainly in young children; confirmed deaths remain rare and poorly quantified in the literature (approx)

First steps : Call poison control if a child has chewed a leaf, a flower, a berry, or drunk the vase water. Do not induce vomiting. Discard vase water out of reach and keep a sprig for identification.

Sources (3)

No entry replaces a certain identification in the field, or medical advice. When in doubt: don't eat it. If ingestion is suspected: poison control or 112/911.