BOTANY WITH THE BASICS OF HYDROBOTANY (AQUATIC PLANTS OF UKRAINE) - B.Ye. Yakubenko - 2011

X. SEED PLANTS

Family Valerianaceae

Mostly herbs, less commonly subshrubs or shrubs with opposite, most often pinnatifid leaves. Flowers bisexual, zygomorphic or asymmetric. Calyx inconspicuous during flowering, enlarging at the fruiting stage to form a tuft of hairs (pappus). Corolla tubular-funnelform with a three- to four-lobed irregular limb, the corolla tube forming a saccate spur at the base. Stamens three to four (rarely one to two), the remaining ones abortive. Ovary inferior, trilocular, but only one locule develops, containing a single anatropous pendulous ovule. Fruit an achene, sometimes with a pappus.

It comprises 13 genera and about 400 species distributed extremely widely, particularly in the temperate latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere (mainly in the Mediterranean and Western Asia), as well as in the Andes of South America; absent in Australia, New Zealand, and most of Africa. In Ukraine, the family is represented by three genera and 31 species.

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Fig. 151. Tall valerian

Tall valerian, marsh valerian (Valeriana exaltata Mikan fil., V. palustris Kreyer). A perennial herbaceous wetland plant, 40-100 cm tall (Fig. 151). Roots slender. Leaves pinnatifid. Flowers zygomorphic, bisexual, with two ovate-lanceolate or broadly lanceolate bracts. Corolla tubular-funnelform, pink or pale pink, with a five-lobed irregular limb, bearing a hollow protuberance at the Base of the tube. Stamens three, attached to the base of the corolla tube. Ovary inferior, trilocular, with one fertile and two sterile locules. Floral formula: ↑K(5)C(5)A3G(1+2). Fruit 2-4 mm long, glabrous on the convex side, glabrous or sparsely pubescent on the flat side. Flowers in June-July.

A medicinal plant. It serves as a food source for cyst-forming nematodes, leaf-mining flies, and beavers.

Grows in grassy sedge fens and bogs in the Carpathians, Polissya, Forest-Steppe, Steppe (along river valleys), and Crimea.



Last update: 07/08/2026

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