Valeriana dioica (Northern Valerian) - photos and description
15 cm ruler
General: Slender-stemmed, erect plants with square stems. Stems puberulent with very short hairs.
Flowers: Inflorescence is first a flat-topped, dense cluster of white flowers, later expanding and becoming more open. Flowers white, tube-shaped with 5 lobes. We measured a flower at 2 mm diameter and 4 mm long.
Leaves: Basal leaves in a rosette, spatulate to elliptical, blade measured at 1 cm long and 1 cm wide. Stem leaves opposite, pinnate to 13 leaflets, stem leaf highlighted above was 5 cm long. Petioles of basal leaves are ciliate.
Height: Height listed in Budd's Flora to 60 cm, we measured plants to 46 cm tall.
Habitat: Wet meadows in the boreal forest.
Abundance: Ranked as an S4 (fairly common) by the Saskatchewan Conservation Data Centre. Uncommon in my experience.
Origin: Native.
When and where photographed: Photos taken August 15th moist soil in a forest cut, boreal forest, about 425 km northeast of our home in Regina, SK.