The open plant encyclopedia
Snap a photo or search by any name to see how to care for it, where it comes from, whether it's safe, and a 3D model you can turn.
The plants people record most in your country, and ones that grow there wild.
Filter by what you want to do, shape, origin, country, care and safety.
Valeriana edulis
Also called Edible valerian, Tall valerian, Taproot Valerian, Hairy Valerian, Tobaccoroot
Valeriana edulis, commonly known as edible valerian or tobacco root, is a species of flowering plant native to North America in the honeysuckle family.
Despite the common name, "tobacco root", edible valerian is not closely related to tobacco.
The native range of edible valarian is separated into two populations in North America. An eastern population that grows in the Midwestern United States in southeastern Minnesota, Iowa, southern Wisconsin, northern Illinois, northwest Indiana, Ohio, and southern Michigan. This also extends across the international border into southwestern Ontario. This eastern population is classified as variety ciliata and grows in swamps and bogs largely in areas that were glaciated though also in the Driftless Area in southwestern Wisconsin.
Edible valerian has long been used as food. One of the earliest written accounts is from the journal of explorer John Charles Frémont in the 1840s:
Valeriana alypifolia · Valeriana aretioides · Arizona valerian · Valeriana asterothrix · Valeriana buxifolia · California valerian · Celtic Spikenard · Valeriana ceratophylla · Valeriana cernua · Valeriana coleophylla · Marsh valerian · Valeriana estonica
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Valeriana edulis by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts are shared under the same licence.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
