BOTANICAL AND ECOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS
SPECIES: Maianthemum canadense | Wild Lily-Of-The-Valley 



GENERAL BOTANICAL CHARACTERISTICS : 
Wild lily-of-the-valley is a native, evergreen perennial forb that grows
3.1 to 7.9 inches (8-20 cm) tall [52,67,73].  It has extensive,
creeping, slender rhizomes with occasional, tuberous enlargements
[39,43].  Most rhizomes are rooted in the litter layer with shallow
(e.g., 0.4 inch [1 cm]) extensions into the mineral soil [43,44,72].
Annual rhizome growth can be 5.9 to 11.8 inches (15-30 cm) [33].  One to
three leaves accompany the 10- to 40-flowered raceme [52,84].  Berries
have one to four seeds [84].


RAUNKIAER LIFE FORM : 
   Hemicryptophyte
   Geophyte


REGENERATION PROCESSES : 
Wild lily-of-the-valley forms extensive patches of vegetative shoots;
branching rhizomes can produce ramets up to 3.9 feet (1 m) apart
[24,67].  A single clone can be up to 19.7 feet (6 m) in diameter and
about 30 to 60 years old [33].  There is no correlation between
production of wild lily-of-the-valley vegetative and sexual reproductive
buds [100].

Wild lily-of-the-valley has little to no seed rain or seedbank.  Some
seeds are dispersed by birds, which contribute to its patchy
distribution [33].  Wild lily-of-the-valley seed set is dependent on
insect pollinators such as solitary bees, bee flies, and syrphids [8].
In a boreal spruce-fir forest in central New Brunswick, it had very low
levels of fruit set.  Eleven percent of flowers bore fruit, and 50
percent of the developing fruits aborted [56].  Wild lily-of-the-valley
had 10 to 35 percent fruit set over 3 years in mesic woods in
Massachusettes [84].

No wild lily-of-the-valley seed germinated in soil samples collected
before disturbance from a mature northern hardwood forest.  Immediately
following canopy removal, no wild lily-of-the-valley seeds were in seed
traps; 1 year later, an average of 0.8 seeds were collected from seed
traps.  At 3 years after clearcutting, wild lily-of-the-valley was only
in areas where it had been before disturbance [62].  Wild
lily-of-the-valley seeds in soil cores taken from 11 sites aged 3 to
approximately 75 years since disturbance did not germinate after
stratification [3].  There was little evidence of successful wild
lily-of-the-valley seedling recruitment, despite relatively high amounts
of seed production in several sites in the boreal forest zone of central
Alberta [100].


SITE CHARACTERISTICS : 
Wild lily-of-the-valley has a wide ecological amplitude and is found in
diverse habitats from maritime forests on beachfronts and sand plains to
subalpine meadows at elevations to 5,330 feet (1,625 m) [72,101,106].
Additionally, it occurs in bog forests, ecotonal swamp forests, and is
common on fen uplands; however, it is intolerant of acidic soils with pH
values below 4.5 to 5.5 [23,27,49,50,53,58].  Wild lily-of-the-valley
may be numerous on drier, raised rims of nonsorted circles [88].  It has
been found on ridgetops, steep to gentle slopes, rolling hills, and
bottomlands [53,64].

Wild lily-of-the-valley is found on a variety of soil types [33].  It
can occur on organic soils such as found on sphagnum hummocks or heath
mats [26,122].  Nutrient conditions may be minerotrophic [122].  While
soil moisture is often moderate, wild lily-of-the-valley can occur on
well-drained to saturated sites [5,10,58,126].

The climate in which wild lily-of-the-valley occurs may be maritime to
continental and has north to south transitions from boreal to temperate
conditions with long, cold winters and short, warm to cool summers
[14,49,94].  Precipitation across its range is moderate to heavy and
distributed throughout the year [5].


SUCCESSIONAL STATUS : 
Facultative Seral Species

Wild lily-of-the-valley is predominantly a late successional species;
however, it has been found in the understory of forest stands of all
ages [100].  In the White Mountains of New Hampshire, wild
lily-of-the-valley was uncommon on early and mid-successional sites
created by landslides [106].  It occurred with approximately 20 to 90
percent frequency in nine mixed-hardwood stands aged 7 to 37 years in
New Brunswick [81].

Wild lily-of-the-valley is shade tolerant and has been found in a wide
range of sunlight levels [33,89,104].  It was present in intermediate
amounts in partially cut and uncut jack pine (Pinus banksiana) stands in
north-central Minnesota where light intensities varied from 23 to 80
percent of full sunlight [105].  Wild lily-of-the-valley increased its
cover in a northern hardwood stand in northwestern Pennsylvania under
both closed canopy and single tree and multitree gap sites [22].
However, 4 years after a shelterwood cut in a black cherry (Prunus
serotina) stand, heavy raspberry cover eliminated wild
lily-of-the-valley [36].

Wild lily-of-the-valley occurred in seral communities such as bur
oak-quaking aspen (Quercus macrocarpa-Populus tremuloides), pure quaking
aspen, and jack pine [15,69].  In mesic northern hardwood forests of
lower Michigan, it was restricted to mature (greater than 50 years)
stands [99].  Wild lily-of-the-valley was found only in the oldest of
eight old-field sites aged 1 to 60 years on the Piedmont Plateau of New
Jersey [7].  In Vermont, it was found in 35-year-old eastern white pine
(Pinus strobus) stands [60].  It occurred commonly in every part of
climax sugar maple-American beech (Acer saccharum-Fagus grandifolia)
forest on Isle Royale, Michigan [25].

In the succession of sand dunes in southern lower Michigan, wild
lily-of-the-valley came in under black oak (Quercus velutina) at 200 to
350 years [93].  It occurred in the final fen to forest stages of bog
succession, whether subclimax or climax associations [23,34,63,76,113].


SEASONAL DEVELOPMENT : 
Wild lily-of-the-valley flowers from the end of May to the end of June
or July, depending on geographic location [8,39,52,56,123].  The leaves
remain through winter, and new leaves are produced after flowering [12].
Fruit matures within 30 days [56].

Related categories for Species: Maianthemum canadense | Wild Lily-Of-The-Valley