No perfumer can extract lily of the valley's scent, so it is faked
Lily of the valley smells so sweet that Christian Dior made it the heart of Diorissimo in 1956, yet the flower yields no usable natural extract. Every perfume evoking it relies on synthetic molecules. The dainty white bells also hide around 38 cardiac glycosides, making the whole plant, berries included, highly poisonous.
Convallaria majalis is a woodland perennial native to Europe and western and northern Asia, spreading through underground rhizomes into large colonies. Each shoot rises 15 to 35 centimetres with usually two leaves and a one-sided spray of six to twelve nodding flowers, typically blooming in May or June in Britain. Because the plants cannot fertilise themselves, a colony made of a single clone never sets seed. When pollination succeeds, small orange-red berries follow, and rodents that hoard them end up scattering some seeds.
Old English names included glovewort, from a salve made for sore hands, and Apollinaris, after a legend that Apollo found it. The common name nods to the biblical phrase lily of the valleys in the Song of Songs, though herbalists attached it to this particular plant only around the 15th or 16th century. Linnaeus coined Convallaria from the Latin Vulgate wording. Botanically it has wandered from the lily family to the asparagus family, and former North American and East Asian varieties are now separate species.
Diorissimo, created by Edmond Roudnitska, originally used hydroxycitronellal, a compound now restricted in Europe as a skin sensitiser. A 2003 finding suggested the flower's scent molecule bourgeonal attracted human sperm; a 2012 study showed it instead mimicked progesterone at high concentrations, unrelated to smell. Folk medicine long used the plant, and Stevenson's Kidnapped praises lily of the valley water, but no scientific support exists for any medicinal benefit. Swallowing it can cause nausea, abdominal pain and irregular heartbeat.
Culture has embraced it widely. Since the early 20th century the French have sold sprigs tax-free on 1 May as a token of spring, and in Cornwall it is worn on Helston's Flora Day. It became Finland's national flower in 1967 and was once Yugoslavia's. It was reputedly Elizabeth II's favourite flower, appeared in the bridal bouquet of Prince William and Catherine Middleton, and was painted by Marc Chagall in 1916.
Source: Lily of the valley
