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.

Habit: Annual, perennial herb (in California). Stem: 1--many; base occasionally woody. Leaf: generally cauline, simple, entire to lobed [toothed]. Inflorescence: cyme, clustered, +- dense, open in age; terminal or axillary. Flower: calyx lobes 5--15, coiled inward, plumose in age, spreading, persistent in fruit; corolla +- funnel-shaped, lobes +- unequal, spreading, tube long, slender, long-spurred; stamen 1. Fruit: +- compressed; adaxial surface 1-veined, abaxial surface 3-veined.
Etymology: (Greek: spurred flower)