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Lily-of-the-valley family (Convallariaceae)
Perennial with a thick, creeping rhizome. Arching cylindrical stem reaching heights of 30-80 cm. Numerous leaves, arranged helically and alternately, of ovate or elliptical shape and sizes to 15 x 2-6 cm, sessile or on short stalks growing out of the leaf axils. Perianth greenish white, cylindrical, length 10-20 mm, narrowing towards the base, and ending in 6 slightly-downcurved segments 3-4 mm long. Fruit a blue-black spherical (and POISONOUS) berry 8-10 mm in diameter. Flowers May-Jun.
Grows on fertile, mesic soils in oak-lime-hornbeam or ash-elm riparian forest. Whole plant also POISONOUS.
Descriptions devised by the team at the Independent Department of Forest Botany, Warsaw University of Life Sciences, i.e. L. Witkowska-Żuk, K. Marciszewska, W. Ciurzycki, A. Obidziński and P. Zaniewski
