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Italian Valerian

Valeriana dioscoridis

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40.6267, 23.0005

Field Notes

Description:

Italian Valerian flower buds.
Stems 90-120 cm tall; round, grooving, hollow, and terminated with flowering branches, disposed crosswise. The leaves are larger at the base of the stem, decreasing in size towards the summit; Opposite, rosette, compound, pinnate or bipinnate, pinnate, smooth margin. Flowers small, in corymbs, odorous, and interspersed with lanceolate, connate, bearded, waved, pale bractes; the calyx is a slight margin at the top of the germen: the corolla tubular, white with a shade of pink, divided at the margin into five reflected, obtuse segments: the filaments are preading with the corolla, and support round, yellowish, anthers: the style is shorter, with a trifid stigma.

Habitat:

Hard rock outcrops. Here spotted in Seih-Sou, the suburban forest of Thessaloniki, Greece.

Notes:

Valerian has been used as a medicinal herb since at least the time of ancient Greece and Rome. Hippocrates described its properties, and Galen later prescribed it as a remedy for insomnia.
The name of the herb is derived from the personal name Valeria and the Latin verb valere (to be strong, healthy).
Greek names: Βαλεριάνα του Διοσκορίδη, Νάρδος η διοσκορίδειος. Greek common names: Αγριοζαμπούκος, Βαλεριανή, Μυριστική

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