Small Valerian.

Annual and biennial herbs. Leaves simple, opposite and fleshy. Flower clusters in terminal heads. Flowers bisexual, white, pinkish or blue. Calyx with up to 6 small teeth or absent. Corolla also small, of 5 unequal lobes, shape variable. Stamens (2)3. Ovary inferior, 3-chambered. Stigma with 3 branches. Fruit with only 1 fertile chamber in 3.

Cultivated in Australia as a herb and salad plant.

Seed.

V. locusta is a weedy plant, the young shoots and leaves being used in salads.

Stamens and stigmas 3.

About 50 species from northern temperate regions to N Africa.

Source: Spencer, R. (2002). Valerianaceae. In: Spencer, R.. Horticultural Flora of South-eastern Australia. Volume 4. Flowering plants. Dicotyledons. Part 3. The identification of garden and cultivated plants. University of New South Wales Press.