Human Flower Project
Lily of the Valley, up a Tree
San Francisco pennant, with rose and lily of the valley tree blooms
Photo: Gasoline Alley Antiques
This lovely old souvenir pennant from San Francisco curled a human-flower question mark: Why would lily of the valley salute the City by the Bay?
After a bit of hunting we learned that the flower represented here isn’t low-growing Convallaria majalis but Clethra arborea—lily of the valley tree. A native of the Madeira Islands, this shrubby summer-bloomer likes moist air and so does well in foggy San Francisco. Its flowering season lasts, we understand, for two months from early to mid-summer, when most of the city’s other flowering trees are spent. The white blossoms are fragrant (whether they are as heavenly in this respect as Convallaria majalis, we can’t say); as cut flowers they’re reputed to last several days longer than earthier lily of the valley. This panegyric says there are lily of the valley trees in Golden Gate Park; and this city arborist locates one with precision: “2193 9th Avenue/Mesa (in yard) in Forest Hill.”
In the Madeira Islands, Clethra arborea is just now coming into bloom.
Lily of the Valley Tree (Clethra arborea) in the Laurel Forest, Madeira Islands
Photo: Madeira and Porto Santo Islands