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, glabrous to subglabrous. Stem: generally erect, 5--80 cm, ×-section generally angled, branches 0--few. Leaf: simple, basal and cauline, opposite, generally entire; basal short-petioled, spoon-shaped; cauline generally sessile, oblong to ovate or obovate. Inflorescence: clustered, head-like or interrupted spike, terminal; bracts palmately divided into 3--5 linear segments. Flower: calyx 0; corolla 2-lipped to +- radial and funnel-shaped, white to dark pink, tube base generally spurred; stamens 3. Fruit: achene; body +- triangular, 2--4 mm, strongly winged or not, wings lateral, wide, +- glabrous to densely hairy.
Etymology: (Greek: spur) Note: Self-fertile; large-flowered taxa cross- and self-pollinated, small flowered taxa self-pollinated only. Wing shape, color, hairiness vary in some species.
eFlora Treatment Author: Abigail J. Moore
Reference: Morey 1962 Ph.D. Dissertation, Stanford Univ