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“Sweet Fragrance of Lily-of-the Valley…”

Early May is a flowering time of lily-of-the valley. It is not accidental that the only species of this plant is called Lily of May, and its delicate flowers are associated with the most wonderful time of the year.

In the floodplain oak forests of Sholokhov country one can annually see new buds swelling and snow-white blossoms blooming, and inhale their unique fragrance. This shade tolerant plant thrives over making big “forest flowerbeds”.

Many beautiful legends and tales are connected with lily-of-the valley being a symbol of lofty sentiments – tenderness, purity, truth and love. It is berhymed and sung. M.A.Sholokhov in his novel “And Quiet Flows the Don” described clearly and penetratingly the feelings of Aksiniya, who one day in Civil War time, when permanently chattering machine-guns were heard from behind the Don, on her way to Vyoshenskaya, sat down to rest on a glade and “suddenly caught a pining and sweet fragrance of lily-of-the valley. Fumbling her hands she found it. It grew just here, under an impenetrable shady bush. Broad, once green, leaves jealously protected from the sun a diminutive hunchbacked stalk topped with snow-white drooping calyces of the flower. But the dewy and rusty leaves were dying, and the flower itself was touched by a mortal decay: two lower calyces got shriveled and blackened, only the top was covered with tears of glistening dew, and suddenly it broke out in the sun with its blinding captivating whiteness. And for some reason, within this brief moment, when Aksiniya through her tears was examining the flower and breathing in its sad fragrance, she remembered her youth and all her long and joy lacking life.”

In the protected Sholokhov sites there are some isles of preserved spring splendour, and to enable the posterity to enjoy the sweet unforgettable fragrance of delicate lilies-of- the valley it is necessary to preserve these flowers recorded in the Red List of Threatened Species and to admire their blooming in the natural environment.

Evgeniya Gudzenko