Polygonatum multiflorum(L.) All.

Common Solomon’s-sealDavid’s-harpEurasian Solomon's sealEurasian Solomon’s SealLadder-to-heavenSolomon's SealSolomon's seal

WFO wfo-0000716086 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Polygonatum multiflorum, photographed by Ирина Хохрякова
fig. a Ирина Хохрякова, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-06-13 / obs. 205824742
Polygonatum multiflorum, photographed by Марина Садыкова
fig. b Марина Садыкова, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 205704001
Polygonatum multiflorum, photographed by Марина Садыкова
fig. c Марина Садыкова, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 205694215
Polygonatum multiflorum, photographed by aga_l_
fig. d aga_l_, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 205388903
Polygonatum multiflorum, photographed by Tobias Schönberg
fig. e Tobias Schönberg, CC0 1.0 / obs. 205093297
Polygonatum multiflorum, photographed by Aleksei Baushev
fig. f Aleksei Baushev, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 205241472
Polygonatum multiflorum, photographed by Jon Mortin
fig. g Jon Mortin, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 204469639
Polygonatum multiflorum, photographed by Jason Grant
fig. h Jason Grant, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 203875230

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 35 botanical countries

Regions where Polygonatum multiflorum is native: Iran, North Caucasus, Transcaucasus, Türkiye, Albania, Austria, Baltic States, Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria, Central European Russia, Czechia-Slovakia, Denmark, East European Russia, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Krym, Netherlands, Northwest European Russia, Norway, NW. Balkan Pen., Poland, Romania, Sicilia, South European Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Türkiye-in-Europe, Ukraine IranNorth CaucasusTranscaucasusTürkiyeAlbaniaAustriaBaltic StatesBelarusBelgiumBulgariaCentral European RussiaCzechia-SlovakiaDenmarkEast European RussiaFinlandFranceGermanyGreeceHungaryItalyKrymNetherlandsNorthwest European RussiaNorwayNW. Balkan Pen.PolandRomaniaSiciliaSouth European RussiaSpainSwedenSwitzerlandTürkiye-in-EuropeUkraine
Native distribution of Polygonatum multiflorum, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Albania ALB EUROPE
Austria AUT
Baltic States BLT
Belarus BLR
Belgium BGM
Bulgaria BUL
Central European Russia RUC
Czechia-Slovakia CZE
Denmark DEN
East European Russia RUE
Finland FIN
France FRA
Germany GER
Great Britain GRB
Greece GRC
Hungary HUN
Italy ITA
Krym KRY
Netherlands NET
Northwest European Russia RUW
Norway NOR
NW. Balkan Pen. YUG
Poland POL
Romania ROM
Sicilia SIC
South European Russia RUS
Spain SPA
Sweden SWE
Switzerland SWI
Türkiye-in-Europe TUE
Ukraine UKR
Iran IRN ASIA-TEMPERATE
North Caucasus NCS
Transcaucasus TCS
Türkiye TUR

Not drawn on the map: Great Britain. We hold no public-domain boundary for this region, so it is listed rather than guessed at.

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Flowering 582 in flower of 1,213 examined

Peak flowering in May. Each bar is the share of Polygonatum multiflorum observations in which someone actually recorded the reproductive state and found the plant in flower, not the raw number of flowering records. That distinction matters: people observe plants far more in spring than in winter, so a bare count of flowering records partly measures when people go outside. Dividing by the number examined removes that. 582 of 1,213 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. 3 months have fewer than 5 examined observations, so no proportion is drawn for them. This is still a global aggregate and not a forecast for your garden: the same species flowers on different dates in different hemispheres. Where a species has fewer than 30 flowering records we do not draw this chart at all. Computed from 10.15468/dl.cgje2x.

Also published as 19 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Convallaria ambigua Schrank
  • Convallaria bracteata B.Thomas
  • Convallaria govaniana Wall.
  • Convallaria multiflora L.
  • Convallaria multiflora var. ambigua Des Moul.
  • Convallaria multiflora var. bracteata Gaudin
  • Convallaria multiflora var. major Gaudin
  • Convallaria multiflora var. ramosa Döll
  • Polygonatum ambiguum (Des Moul.) B.D.Jacks.
  • Polygonatum bracteatum (Gaudin) G.Don
  • Polygonatum intermedium Dumort.
  • Polygonatum multiflorum f. bracteatum (E.Thomas ex Gaudin) Fernald & S.K.Harris
  • Polygonatum multiflorum f. ramosum (Döll) Fernald & S.K.Harris
  • Polygonatum multiflorum subsp. bracteatum (B.Thomas) K.Richt.
  • Polygonatum multiflorum subsp. broteroi (Guss.) K.Richt.
  • Polygonatum multiflorum var. bracteatum (B.Thomas) Kunth
  • Polygonatum multiflorum var. latifolium Kunth
  • Polygonatum multiflorum var. ramosum (Döll) Geisenh.
  • Polygonatum salomonis Friche-Joset & Montandon

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.