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European lily of the valley is rated fire resistant, with regional landscape recommendations and two different scores in Idaho's database.
Idaho Firewise lists Convallaria majalis at ten out of ten among groundcovers and at eight among perennials. Both rows use the species name without identifying a cultivar. The two scores therefore do not identify a named selection for a gardener seeking one particular score.
The Pacific Northwest extension guide includes this groundcover among fire-resistant plants. Its recommendations accompany watering and pruning to keep plants healthy, removal of dead material and spacing between plant clusters. The guide describes it as a shade plant that likes rich, moist soil but tolerates dry and clay soils. It also warns of possible invasiveness in parts of Oregon and Washington and advises avoiding the areas identified in the Invasive Plant Atlas.
Oregon State also includes Convallaria majalis in its fire-resistant plant profiles for Willamette Valley growing conditions. Its later groundcover gallery points to the joint guide for complete details. These regional recommendations give a gardener a favorable fire assessment together with a growing site and maintenance needs to consider.
Form
groundcover
Mature height
~0.8 ft
Water need
moderate
Rated in
Alaska; British Columbia; Colorado / Rocky Mountain Front Range; Maryland, New Jersey, and West Virginia +6
On this lot
1. Fire evidence and conditions
Fire evidence
Fire-resistant — location does not change the cited classification.
Alaska; British Columbia; Colorado / Rocky Mountain Front Range; Maryland, New Jersey, and West Virginia; New Mexico; OR/WA/ID; Oregon (Willamette Valley); Pacific Northwest (Oregon / Washington / Idaho); eastern WA; southern Idaho / Intermountain
Maintenance
Typed publication scope: 10 scopes across 8 cited fire sources
Alaska Division of Forestry opens with the wildfire threat to Alaskans and publishes Alaska firewise-landscape examples. FireApproved publishes 58 exact source owners from its 60 taxon entries and holds the taxon-free fern label. State publication scope does not establish suitability for every Alaska climate, site, or home-ignition-zone placement.
Colorado State University Extension and the Colorado State Forest Service publish Fact Sheet 6.305 for Colorado's WUI and varied ecosystems. FireApproved exposes all 114 exact source owners at Colorado publication scope while retaining score, elevation, water, and Idaho-carrier lineage. Publication scope is not suitability for every Colorado site or zone.
Southern Idaho (ID footprint); partial normalized coverage · 2013-11-08
The official database labels itself "For Southern Idaho" and describes Idaho residents at the urban-rangeland interface. FireApproved publishes 419 existing plant owners that cite its scored rows. This bounded Southern Idaho scope is regional context, not statewide coverage or a conclusion that the score transfers unchanged to every Idaho site.
Maryland Forest Service says the list contains plants that can be grown in Maryland and identifies Maryland natives. FireApproved publishes 169 exact source owners from the 180 printed rows; an unrepresentable form and duplicate-owner rows are not broadened. The list calls itself non-comprehensive and does not establish suitability for every Maryland site.
NJ; partial normalized coverage
New Jersey DEP publishes a state edition saying the listed plants can be grown in New Jersey and are relatively resistant to fire. Its same 180 printed taxon occurrences map to the 169 conservative owners already normalized for the template family. The list is non-comprehensive and does not establish suitability for every New Jersey site or override the Pinelands Commission's separate placement and fuel-break rules.
WV; partial normalized coverage · 2026-08-26
West Virginia Division of Forestry publishes a state edition saying the listed plants can be grown in West Virginia and are relatively resistant to fire. Its same 180 printed taxon occurrences map to the 169 conservative owners already normalized for the template family. The list is non-comprehensive and provides no comparative or site-specific rating.
New Mexico Forestry Division publishes this as its FireWise Plant List for New Mexico. FireApproved accounts for all 140 printed rows and publishes 95 exact same-rank owners already represented in the directory; 29 exact taxa without an existing record, 14 unresolved spellings or higher-rank matches, one compound taxon cell, and one species row whose only apparent owner has an infraspecific printed identity remain held. Every published row retains the source's Y, N, ?, or blank elevation cells. Publication scope does not erase those elevation limits or establish suitability for every New Mexico site.
Willamette Valley (OR footprint); partial normalized coverage · 2015-02-01
OSU Extension says EM 9103 highlights fire-resistant plants that thrive under Willamette Valley growing conditions. FireApproved publishes 172 exact owners only as valley context. The guide shares the PNW 590 lineage and is not a second independent vote or statewide site clearance.
The October 2023 joint Pacific Northwest Extension publication explicitly names Oregon, Washington, and Idaho and publishes more than 150 plant profiles. FireApproved has normalized 155 exact plant records from the source; publication scope does not assert that every listed plant suits every site within the three states.
Eastern Washington (WA footprint); partial normalized coverage
Washington DNR publishes the guide for Eastern Washington and says it compiles plants from other Firewise documents that are likely to thrive there. FireApproved publishes 46 exact owners only as eastern Washington context. The rows are corroborative, not empirical or statewide.
2. Why this plant is relevant here
State distribution
Documented in AL, AR, CT, DE, IA, ID, IL, IN, KS, KY, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, MO, MT, NC, NH, NJ, NY, OH, OR, PA, RI, TN, UT, VA, VT, WA, WI, WV.
Native range
Introduced / established
30 sourced range or established records. This is not an invasive warning.
USDA hardiness
3 applicable cited hardiness statements overlap but have different boundaries; compare each complete source row.
3. Legal, ecological, and broader status
Legal-list status
Seed-list status
Reported invasive here
Broader regional context
Federal context
How to read this page
The status above is computed from the cited rows below: independent recommendations can support a fire-resistant result, an avoid row can produce keep-away, and disagreement stays visible as conflict. Placement notes preserve each source’s own scheme rather than translating unlike rules into one scale. This is evidence about a plant, not permission to plant it in every part of the defensible space; Zone 0 remains noncombustible.
Native and introduced range evidence
These are exact U.S. botanical-area records from the cited range source. Native and
introduced describe biogeographic relationship, not fire performance or planting approval.
Doubtful and extinct rows stay visible but do not count as current presence.
The lossless worldwide derivative is retained once in the research corpus; object pages repeat only exact U.S. areas needed by the local lens. The JSON twin carries the same page assertions.
Plant hardiness evidence
These values describe the plant source. Your ZIP zone comes from the separate 2023 USDA
Plant Hardiness Zone Map. Whole-zone values stay whole-zone, and a single unresolved value
is not treated as a tolerance range. Different source boundaries stay separate: overlapping
statements are compared independently, while only ranges with no shared zone are called a conflict.
Source location: PlantCharacteristics record 28409, Temperature, Minimum (°F).
Where its sources say to plant it
Placement rules below use each source's own distances or named zones, tied to its rating.
They are not interchangeable with the directory's current Zone 0 guidance.
Fire Resistance of Plants Master Database: plantable at 10' from home [Idaho minimum planting distance] (with its recommendation)
FireSmart BC Plant Program: suitable for HIZ intermediate zone (10-30 m) [FireSmart BC Home Ignition Zone] (with its recommendation)
Fire-resistant Landscape Plants for the Willamette Valley: Lily-of-the-Valley profile (PDF page 63) [osu-em-9103-profile] (with its recommendation)
Fire-resistant plant profile galleries: Lily of the valley — Convallaria majalis [osu-2023-groundcovers-gallery] (with its recommendation)
Ignition-Resistant Landscape Plants: suitable for defensible-space zones 1-2 (score 8+) [CSU defensible-space zone] (with its recommendation)
Protect Your Home from Wildfire: Ground covers and perennials [Alaska DNR brochure sections] (with its recommendation)
Firewise Landscaping Plants: Herbaceous Annuals and Perennials [Maryland Firewise plant-form tables] (with its recommendation)
FireWise Plant List for New Mexico: PDF page 5, Flowers and Ground Covers, p5-r14 [nm-emnrd-firewise-table-row] (with its recommendation)
The evidence
Grouped by what each source concluded. Primary evidence rated the plant itself
(a lab, field program, or original curation); corroboration compiled or
republished another source's rating and resolves to its root lineage.
Listed as Convallaria majalis (Lily-of-the-Valley). The source says listed species exhibit stronger resistance to ignition by wildfires. Source comments: Plants are poisonous – do not eat. Shade tolerant
FireWise Plant List for New Mexico — New Mexico Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department, Forestry Division · 2003 Forestry Division PDF · original sourceCorroborationCompilationlineage: csu-nmsu-firewise
“FireWise Plant List for New Mexico”
Listed as Convallaria majalis (Lily of the valley) in Flowers and Ground Covers. Printed elevation cells: 4,000 ft=N, 5,000 ft=Y, 6,000 ft=Y, 7,000 ft=Y, 8,000 ft=Y, 9,000+ ft=?. Water need: H; sun/shade: Sh; mature height: .5’; approximate bloom: May.
