Maianthemum canadense
species of plant
Maianthemum canadense (Canadian may-lily, Canada mayflower, false lily-of-the-valley, Canadian lily-of-the-valley, wild lily-of-the-valley, two-leaved Solomon's seal)
is an understory perennial flowering plant, native to Canada and the northeastern United States, from Yukon and British Columbia east to Newfoundland, into St. Pierre and Miquelon. It can be found growing in both coniferous and deciduous forests. The plant appears in two forms, either as a single leaf rising from the ground with no fruiting structures or as a flowering/fruiting stem with two to three leaves. Flowering shoots have clusters of 12–25 starry-shaped, white flowers held above the leaves.
The plant is rich in calcium and phosphorus and as such makes up the bulk of the diet of white-tailed deer in the northeastern United States in the spring, when lactating does and antler-growing bucks require extra amounts of those nutrients.
Description
Plants grow to 10–25 cm (4–10 in) tall, arising from branching rhizomes that have roots only at the nodes. Plants may be one-leaved and without fruiting structures (sterile). the fertile, flowering shoots have 2–3 leaves.
Leaves
The leaf blades are 4.5–9 cm (2–4 in) long by 3–5.5 cm (1–2 in) wide with a pointed tip.
“Maianthemum canadense” enters the record as species of plant. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Maianthemum, canadense and species can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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“Maianthemum canadense” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Maianthemum, canadense and species provides the most credible route into that argument.
Stable identifiers, scientific names and standards terminology offer the best bridge between this overview and specialist evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 3, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3303394. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Maianthemum canadense” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.