Wild Valerian
Valeriàna sitchénsis
White, pinkish
Summer
Wash., Oreg.
A very handsome and attractive plant, much like the kind that is cultivated in gardens. It grows from one to three feet tall, from a creeping rootstock, with smooth, juicy, hollow stems and handsome bright green foliage. The leaves are smooth and the leaflets of the stem-leaves are coarsely toothed. The flowers are white or pinkish, with pink buds, and are crowded in fine large, rather flat-topped clusters. The stamens are long and give a pretty feathery appearance to the cluster. The flowers are strongly sweet-scented, but the roots usually have a horrible smell when they are broken. V. sylvática looks much the same, but the leaves are mostly toothless, and it is widely distributed in the United States, both East and West, also growing in Asia. Both are woodland plants, liking rich moist soil.
Arizona Valerian
Valeriàna Arizònica
Pink
Spring
Arizona
An attractive plant, from three to nine inches tall, with smooth hollow stems, smooth leaves, and pretty clusters of flowers, but not nearly so large as the last. They are purplish-pink and slightly sweet-scented. This grows in crevices in the rocks in moist places.
White Valerian—Valeriana sitchensis.
Arizona Valerian—Valeriana Arizonica.
HONEYSUCKLE FAMILY. Caprifoliaceae.
Not a large family, mostly of the northern hemisphere; herbs, shrubs, shrubby vines or trees; leaves opposite, usually without stipules; flowers perfect, regular or irregular; calyx with three to five divisions; corolla usually with five united lobes, sometimes two-lipped; stamens on the corolla tube, usually as many as its lobes and alternate with them; ovary inferior, with one style; fruit a berry, stone-fruit, or capsule.