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: CORN SALAD
Habit: Annual. Stem: erect, equally, repeatedly forked. Leaf: basal and cauline, generally simple, entire to toothed. Inflorescence: cymes, dense, terminal, peduncled, generally paired, subtended by involucre-like ring of bracts. Flower: calyx generally 0; corolla funnel-shaped, lobes unequal, throat +- swollen at base; stamens 3; ovary (2)3-chambered, 1 chamber fertile, others empty or occasionally fused into 1. Fruit: +- compressed, grooved lengthwise.
Etymology: (Latin: diminutive of Valeriana)
eFlora Treatment Author: Abigail J. Moore
Reference: Bell 2007 Molec Phylogen Evol 44:929--941