Citation: Miller, Gard. Dict. edn 4 (1754).

Derivation: Latin diminutive form of Valeriana.

Synonymy: Not Applicable

Common name: Cornsalads.

Description:
Annual herbs with leaves entire to pinnatisect, petiolate to spathulate at the base becoming sessile and stem-clasping below the inflorescence.

inflorescence dichotomously branched with 1 to several compact dichasia, with sessile flowers; bracts scale-like, clasping and often retaining fruit for some time; calyx a tube surmounted by 1-12 entire or rarely toothed lobes, not coiled up in the flower; corolla with a short tube about as long as the subequal lobes, without a spur; stamens 3, with filaments inserted in the throat of the corolla tube; ovary inferior, the slender style terminating in the stigma with 3 short branches.

Fruit dry, surmounted by an accrescent persistent calyx, ridged where 2 cells are aborted.

Distribution:  About 200 species in the Northern Hemisphere but also into South America and South Africa.

Biology: No text

Key to Species:

1. Hairs scattered on terete branches; calyx lobes terminating in hooked spines	V. discoidea 1.
1. Hairs mainly along ridges on branches; calyx lobes without spines
2. Calyx tube slightly oblique-horizontally cut and with 5 or 6 lobes	V. eriocarpa 2.
2. Calyx strongly obliquely truncate with a dorsal lobe entire or rarely with 1-3 teeth	V. muricata 3.

Author: Not yet available