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Valeriana officinalis
Also called Common Valerian, Garden valerian, Garden Heliotrope, European Valerian, Allheal, Garðabrúða, Cat's Valerian
Valerian is a hardy perennial herb of meadows, wet woodland and marsh edges, grown for its fragrant pale pink flower clusters and medicinal root. It likes moist, fertile soil in sun or part shade.
Valerian (Valeriana officinalis) is an herbaceous perennial flowering plant in the family Caprifoliaceae, native to Europe and southwestern Asia. It is the type species of the genus Valeriana.
It is native from Iceland south to Portugal, north to central Scandinavia, east to European Russia, and southeast to Iran. The plant is typically found in wet and dry meadows, wet woodlands, and marshes; plants adapted to drier chalk grassland soils are sometimes distinguished as V. o. subsp. collina.
Crude extracts of valerian root may have sedative and anxiolytic effects; however, evidence for this is mixed and debated. It is commonly sold as a dietary supplement to promote sleep. A dry ethanol extract of valerian root has been recognised as a medicine for adults for relieving mild nervous tension and sleep disorders by the European Medicines Agency. It produces a catnip-like response in cats.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Valerian (herb) by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
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.
