Common Name: VALERIAN FAMILY
Habit: Annual, perennial herb, occasionally strongly scented, odor generally unpleasant. Leaf: simple to pinnately lobed or compound; petioles generally sheathing; basal +- whorled; cauline opposite, petioled to sessile. Inflorescence: cyme, panicle, or head-like, generally +- dense. Flower: generally bisexual; calyx fused to ovary tip, limb 0 or lobes generally 5--15, coiled inward, plumose in age, pappus-like, spreading in fruit; corolla radial to 2-lipped, lobes generally 5, throat generally > lobes, > tube, base generally spurred or swollen, tube slender, long or short; stamens generally 1--3, fused to petals; ovary inferior, chamber generally 1, or occasionally 3 but 2 empty or vestigial. Fruit: achene, smooth, ribbed, or winged.
Genera In Family: +- 17 genera, 300 species: generally temperate, worldwide except Australia. Some species cultivated (Centranthus), some medicinal (Valeriana).
eFlora Treatment Author: Abigail J. Moore & Lauramay T. Dempster, except as noted
Scientific Editor: Douglas H. Goldman, Bruce G. Baldwin.

Common Name: VALERIAN
Habit: [Annual] perennial herb from rhizome or short underground caudex, glabrous to soft-hairy. Stem: generally erect, 1--several. Leaf: basal simple to pinnately lobed or compound, tapered to petiole; cauline +- sessile to +- clasping, pinnately lobed to compound, distal lobe generally > others. Inflorescence: cyme, clustered, +- dense to open, terminal or axillary. Flower: calyx lobes 5--15, rolled inward, plumose in age, spreading, persistent in fruit; corolla +- funnel-shaped, white to pink, lobes +- equal, throat >> tube, occasionally swollen near base, tube slender, occasionally obscured by swollen throat; stamens 3; ovary +- 1-chambered. Fruit: generally compressed, generally 6-veined vertically.
Etymology: (Latin: strength, from use in folk medicine, or after Valerian, a Roman emperor)
Reference: Bell & Donoghue 2005 Organisms Diversity Evol 5:147--159