Species
+

Valeriana officinalis L.

Common Valerian, European valerian, Garden Heliotrope, Garden Valerian

Climate known 60 photographs
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Valerian is an herbaceous perennial flowering plant in the family Caprifoliaceae, native to Europe and southwestern Asia. It is the type species of the genus Valeriana.

Text from Wikipedia, “Valerian (herb)”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Valeriana

Valeriana is a genus of flowering plants in the family Caprifoliaceae, members of which may be commonly known as valerians. It contains many species, including the garden valerian, Valeriana officinalis. Valeriana has centers of diversity in Eurasia and South America, and is represented by native species on all continents except Antarctica.

Text from Wikipedia, “Valeriana”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Caprifoliaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Denmark, Finland, Great Britain +35
Wild records
512 in range· 21 open

At a glance

Warmest month
22°C
Jul, mean day; nights 14 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
876mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Oct 83 mm (CHELSA)
Light
4–33DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (June to January in the northern hemisphere). Habitat rain 876 mm a year, wettest October at 83 mm, driest April at 46 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 4 to 33 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -8.7 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Valeriana exaltata J.C.Mikan; Valeriana nipponica Nakai; Valeriana nipponica Nakai ex Kitag.; Valeriana officinalis subsp. exaltata (J.C.Mikan) Soó; Valeriana officinalis subsp. sarkayi (Soó) Á.Löve & D.Löve and 7 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (June to January in the northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (635 mm of 876 mm) takes 8 months, June to January. Mean temperature moves 14.9 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: December to July.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 876 mm a year, wettest October at 83 mm, driest April at 46 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

876 mm a year at the habitat, 635 mm of it June to January. Wettest month October at 83 mm, driest April at 46 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 823 mm to 943 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 4 to 33 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 4 to 33 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 3, the highest 90th-percentile month 36).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor -8.7 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -8.7 °C, the absolute minimum -17.5 °C, about 62 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 28.6 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 0.4 °C in February (across the envelope cells -0.8 °C to 1.5 °C), warmest day 21.8 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -8.7 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 60 to 69% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 5 °C in Jan to 22 °C in Jul; mean night from 0 °C in Feb to 14 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Jan to Mar, is the three months around the coldest night. 876 mm of rain a year, most in Oct. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 500 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -17.5 °C and the 99th-percentile day 28.6 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-20°-10°10°20°30°frost28.6° 99th-percentile day (undated)-17.5° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100mm rainDLI 4–33RH 60–69 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 500 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C5 / 4–66 / 5–69 / 8–1013 / 11–1417 / 15–1820 / 18–2022 / 20–2322 / 20–2218 / 17–1914 / 13–149 / 8–106 / 5–6
Night °C1 / -1–20 / -1–23 / 1–35 / 4–59 / 8–911 / 11–1214 / 13–1514 / 13–1511 / 11–138 / 7–94 / 3–61 / -0–3
Rain mm77 / 70–8460 / 56–6470 / 62–7646 / 43–6165 / 60–7973 / 69–8482 / 74–9178 / 69–9278 / 71–9283 / 73–10082 / 73–9582 / 76–88
DLI5 / 4–610 / 9–1117 / 16–1927 / 26–2932 / 32–3433 / 33–3632 / 32–3527 / 27–3019 / 18–2111 / 11–136 / 5–74 / 3–5
RH %68 / 66–6965 / 64–6663 / 62–6460 / 59–6260 / 59–6161 / 59–6261 / 60–6361 / 60–6263 / 62–6465 / 64–6568 / 66–6869 / 66–70

Each figure is the median across the 500 grid cells holding the 511 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 761:3713 (51.925, 5.675). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -17.5 °C, 1st-percentile night -8.7 °C, 99th-percentile day 28.6 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 500 distinct grid cells holding the 511 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 761:3713 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 52.00_5.625, lapse-corrected -8 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 7 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeDenmark, Finland, Great Britain, Norway, Sweden, Austria, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Hungary, Netherlands, Poland, Switzerland, Corse, France, Portugal, Sardegna, Spain, Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Romania, Turkey-in-Europe, Yugoslavia, Belarus, Baltic States, Krym, Central European Russia, East European Russia, North European Russia, South European Russia, Northwest European Russia, Ukraine, North Caucasus, Transcaucasus, Iran, Turkey· introduced: Yukon, British Columbia, Manitoba, Labrador, New Brunswick, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward I., Québec, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Connecticut, Indiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Vermont, West Virginia, Maryland
Kew's description“perennial” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker51.818, 4.056 · in the densest population, 393 records (77% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 512 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 21 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 419 km away. 14 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 1 in-range record is placed to worse than 10 km and stays on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 512 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Valeriana officinalisValeriana officinalisValeriana officinalisValeriana officinalisValeriana officinalisValeriana officinalisValeriana officinalisValeriana officinalis

Photographs: no rights reserved · CC0 (4); (c) Clément Maouche, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Mary Krieger, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2).

Photographs: iNaturalist and GBIF media did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Valeriana officinalis, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Adverse effects of herbal medicines: an overview of systematic reviews
Paul Posadzki, Leala K. Watson, Edzard Ernst (2013) · Clinical Medicine
In vivo effects of goldenseal, kava kava, black cohosh, and valerian on human cytochrome P450 1A2, 2D6, 2E1, and 3A4/5 phenotypes
Bill J. Gurley, Stephen D. Gardner, Martha A. Hubbard, D WILLIAMS (2005) · Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics
Coma from the Health Food Store: Interaction between Kava and Alprazolam
Joenie C. Almeida, Edwin W. Grimsley (1996) · Annals of Internal Medicine
Sedative and sleep-enhancing properties of linarin, a flavonoid-isolated from Valeriana officinalis
Sebastián P. Fernández, Cristina Wasowski, Alejandro C. Paladini, Mariel Marder (2004) · Pharmacology Biochemistry and Behavior
Botanicals and Their Bioactive Phytochemicals for Women’s Health
Birgit M. Dietz, Atieh Hajirahimkhan, Tareisha L. Dunlap, Judy L. Bolton (2016) · Pharmacological Reviews
Aqueous extract of valerian root (Valeriana officinalis L.) improves sleep quality in man
Peter Leathwood, F. Chauffard, Eva Heck, Raphael Munoz-Box (1982) · Pharmacology Biochemistry and Behavior
Indole Alkaloids from Plants as Potential Leads for Antidepressant Drugs: A Mini Review
Hazrulrizawati Abd Hamid, Aizi Nor Mazila Ramli, Mashitah M. Yusoff (2017) · Frontiers in Pharmacology
Phytotherapeutics: an evaluation of the potential of 1000 plants
Giancarlo Cravotto, Luisa Boffa, L. Genzini, Davide Garella (2009) · Journal of Clinical Pharmacy and Therapeutics
Valeriana officinalis root extracts have potent anxiolytic effects in laboratory rats
Kiera Murphy, Z.J. Kubin, J.N. Shepherd, R.H. Ettinger (2009) · Phytomedicine

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence search API
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media did not answercarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: api.gbif.org not asked: offline re-derivation
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 5 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.