Ancient flower of herbalists
Photos: Arne Ader
Translation: Liis
Valerian
Valerian; garden valerian Harilik palderjan Valeriana officinalis
Valerian has been used for several thousand years – in folk medicine, and by pharmacists until today.
The valerian flowering in meadows reminds of an Umbelliferae or parsley family plant. But it is a perennial related to the plants in the Rubiaceae or bedstraw family.
The large inflorescence, a compound cyme, is embellished by rose-coloured funnel-shaped flowers somewhat different from the umbellifers, and not in clusters of uniform length. The plant can grow up to a metre high depending on the location – in dry wooded meadows plants are lower, in wet flooded riverplains more luscious; thus different-looking plants occur. The slender leaves of the plant are odd-pinnate, consisting of up to 11 leaflets and the terminal leaflet is smaller.
Identification cannot go wrong if the plant is pulled out with the root: then the familiar valerian smell is perceivable.
Valerian
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