Despite Its Name, Mayflower Is A Sight for June You will need a magnifiying lens to see the unusual four-parted blossom of the Canada mayflower, a member of the lily family. Ask the deer which leaves of the spring woods rank among their favorites. Then try to squeeze an answer from the ruffed grouse and the chipmunks as to which small ruby red berries growing close to the forest floor they eat with gusto in mid-summer. All three of these wild creatures will give you the same answer, the Canada mayflower. I’ll bet there aren’t many places in Canada where this plant blooms in May, other than the region in lower Ontario that lies below the latitude of northeastern Wisconsin. As a matter of fact I have seldom seen it flowering in Door County woods before the end of the first week of June. This beautiful little wildflower was first discovered and described in Canada and given the scientific name of Maianthemum canadense (may-AN-the-mum can-a-DEN-see). "Maius" is Latin for May and "anthemon" is Greek for a flower. Naturally "canadense" refers to Canada, so its common name of Canada mayflower is quite obvious as is the likelihood that it was first botanically described in southern Ontario where it should be found flowering in late May. A flower as widespread as this diminutive little member of the great lily family is bound to have several different common names including bead ruby, foam flower, squirrel berry, two-leaved Solomon’s seal, and false or wild lily-of-the-valley. I ask those who insist on calling it the false lily-of-the-valley if they would ever consider calling the lily-of-the-valley the "false Canada mayflower?" I’m sure you get my point. Yes, I prefer to not include the word "false" in any and all plant names. We’re fortunate to have many growing along the edge of our path through the woods to our garden where we can enjoy them and closely observe their progress every day of their growth. There they grow freely with large-flowered trilliums, trout lilies, hepaticas, wood anemones, Canada and downy yellow violets, Solomon’s plumes, wild leeks and other species typical of the mixed hardwoods where the soil is moist and where there is partial shade. What handsome, parallel-veined, shiny, heart-shaped, rich green leaves that clasp the flowering stems these ubiquitous perennial plants have. The abundant single leaves you see are too young to bloom. They will have to grow another year or two before they develop two or three leaves and the small, white, foam-like clusters of flowers grouped in what is referred to as a raceme (ra-SEEM), a stalked inflorescence in which stalked flowers are arranged singly along a common main axis. About the only other wildflower I can think of that could be confused with the Canada mayflower is the three-leaved Solomon’s seal, also called the bog Solomon’s seal. However, each blossom of this wildflower of very wet sites has six petals compared to the four-parted structure of the Canada mayflower. What’s downright confusing is that both of these small rather dainty wildflowers belong to the lily family, well-known for having flowers in multiples of three. This is one of the unique features of the Canada mayflower, a lily whose flowers are in parts of four. It has four stamens, two petals and two sepals that actually appear to be petals. One could say, for all practical purposes, that it does have four petals. At least that’s what they look like to me when I examine the individual one-eighth to one-fourth-inch blossoms using a 10-power hand lens. Here is a four to six-inch wildflower that to be genuinely appreciated should be looked at face to face through a hand lens while you are comfortably lying on your belly or side. This to me is one of life’s little pleasures, especially if you own the woods and these plants and where you are privileged to walk, stand, sit, kneel or lie wherever you please! What you will want to be sure to do when you come upon a patch of these wildflowers in full bloom is to smell them. You are in for a very pleasant surprise. It is said that a clone of these extensively-creeping plants, spreading by underground rhizomes, may be 20 feet across and 60 years old. Eventually red-speckled berries form that will turn to pink or red, appear to be too large for the overall dainty frame of the plant, and are inedible by humans. Rarely, if ever, will you see Canada mayflowers in bloom before all of the snow as melted. Spring has really settled in and you can even expect to have a few mosquitoes buzzing around your ears when you’re enjoying the many fine virtues of these exquisite little "belly fowers." William Blake wrote some powerful thoughts in his ‘Auguries of Innocence’ that you might wish to think about the next time you kneel down to enjoy a Canada mayflower: "To see a world in a grain of sand, And a heaven in a wild flower, Hold infinity in the palm of your hand, An eternity in an hour." So what’s your personal favorite sign of spring? I have several, one of which is the Canada mayflower! This column appeared in the Door County Advocate on 06/05/2004. © Copyright 2004 Roy Lukes. All rights reserved.