Valerianella

Plant Characteristics

Cultivation

Scientific Names

Valerianella is a genus of plant in family Valerianaceae.

Read about Valerianella in the Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture

Valerianella (diminutive of Valeriana). Valerianaceae. Annual dichotomously branched herbs, chiefly spring plants, sometimes planted in wild-garden or rock-garden; one is a salad plant. Leaves, lower, in a radical rosette, entire; cauline entire, dentate or rarely incise-pinnatifid: cymes sometimes corymbosely paniculate fastigiate, sometimes densely globose at the ends of the branches: fls. whitish, pale bluish, or rose; corolla-tube short or rarely elongate, limb 5-cleft, spreading; stamens 3: fr. 3-celled, 2 of which are empty.—About 58 species, Eu., N. Afr., W. Asia, and N. Amer., mostly in the Medit. region. Corn salad is both a salad plant and a pot-herb, chiefly the former. The name "corn salad" is probably derived from the fact that the plant grows spontaneously in the grain-fields of Europe, large quantities of it being gathered in early spring. It is rather tasteless compared with lettuce, and is little known in America. Abroad it is prized as a fall and winter salad. It is a cool-season crop, grown like lettuce and matures in six to eight weeks. Plants should stand about 6 inches apart in the row. An ounce of seed should give 2,000 to 3,000 plants. The above text is from the Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture. It may be out of date, but still contains valuable and interesting information which can be incorporated into the remainder of the article. Click on "Collapse" in the header to hide this text.

Cultivation

Propagation

Sow seed in early spring to late summer, where the plants are to grow.

Species

Here is an incomplete list of its species:

• Valerianella affinis, Balf.f. Yemenite Mache (believed extinct)
• Valerianella locusta, Corn Salad or Lamb's Lettuce
• Valerianella ozarkana, Ozark Corn Salad
• Valerianella eriocarpa, Fetticus (considered by some to be merely a subspecies of V. locusta)
• Valerianella radiata

Gallery

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References

• Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture, by L. H. Bailey, MacMillan Co., 1963

External links

• w:Valerianella. Some of the material on this page may be from Wikipedia, under the Creative Commons license.
• Valerianella QR Code (Size 50, 100, 200, 500)