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True valerian, also known as medicinal valerian, common valerian(Valeriana officinalis) or simply valerian, is a plant species from the honeysuckle family(Caprifoliaceae). Even in ancient times, the roots of valerian were a popular remedy for nervousness, insomnia and inner restlessness.

Botany

True valerian is a perennial herbaceous plant and grows to a height of 1 to 2 metres. It forms rhizomes as survival organs. The hollow stem is ribbed and usually bare.

The lush green, opposite and odd-pinnate leaves, with a partly hairy, grooved or short-winged central axis, are about 20 centimetres long, the lower ones stalked and the upper ones stalkless. The up to 23 sessile, pointed leaflets, which are glabrous on the upper side and sometimes slightly hairy on the underside, are ovate or ovate-lanceolate, with entire margins or unevenly coarsely serrated, toothed to lobed. The leaf stalks are often stem-embracing. The strongly branched false umbels with their small, pale pink to white, zygomorphic (single-symmetrical; with only 1 level of symmetry) single flowers appear at the tips of the branches. The individual flowers are bell-shaped and have a sweet fragrance. The strong rhizome is made up of numerous individual roots.

Valerian is easy to grow and modest to care for. It prefers a sunny location, is hardy, adaptable and frost-hardy in our latitudes. The perennial herbaceous perennial is not very demanding. The roots can be harvested for teas or other purposes from the second year onwards.

Distribution

Valerian is a perennial plant that grows wild in grassy areas in North America, Asia and Europe. It feels most at home in damp meadows and forest clearings. As a wetland plant, it also tolerates occasional flooding and is therefore often found in the wild in meadows along watercourses.

Service

The preservation of diversity is very important to us, which is why we store around 5,400 samples of seeds and plants in our gene bank. With the gene bank for agricultural crops, medicinal and aromatic plants, we are making a significant contribution to the preservation of biodiversity.