Valeriana edulisNutt.

edible valeriantall valeriantobacco root

WFO wfo-0000426825 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Valeriana edulis, photographed by Ethan Rose
fig. a Ethan Rose, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-05-20 / obs. 199216154
Valeriana edulis, photographed by Katie Kucera
fig. b Katie Kucera, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 197613493
Valeriana edulis, photographed by Reid Hardin
fig. c Reid Hardin, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 145740665
Valeriana edulis, photographed by Rachel Stringham
fig. d Rachel Stringham, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 149435618
Valeriana edulis, photographed by John Powers
fig. e John Powers, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 109122544
Valeriana edulis, photographed by Eric Knight
fig. f Eric Knight, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 81948268
Valeriana edulis, photographed by Brian Dickerson
fig. g Brian Dickerson, CC0 1.0 / obs. 76018540
Valeriana edulis, photographed by aarongunnar
fig. h aarongunnar, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 75475444

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 25 botanical countries

Regions where Valeriana edulis is native: Arizona, British Columbia, Colorado, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Mexico Central, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southwest, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Ohio, Ontario, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, Wisconsin, Wyoming ArizonaBritish ColumbiaColoradoIdahoIllinoisIndianaIowaMexico CentralMexico GulfMexico NortheastMexico NorthwestMexico SouthwestMichiganMinnesotaMontanaNevadaNew MexicoOhioOntarioOregonSouth DakotaUtahWashingtonWisconsinWyoming
Native distribution of Valeriana edulis, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Arizona ARI NORTHERN AMERICA
British Columbia BRC
Colorado COL
Idaho IDA
Illinois ILL
Indiana INI
Iowa IOW
Mexico Central MXC
Mexico Gulf MXG
Mexico Northeast MXE
Mexico Northwest MXN
Mexico Southwest MXS
Michigan MIC
Minnesota MIN
Montana MNT
Nevada NEV
New Mexico NWM
Ohio OHI
Ontario ONT
Oregon ORE
South Dakota SDA
Utah UTA
Washington WAS
Wisconsin WIS
Wyoming WYO

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Flowering 1,434 in flower of 1,839 examined

Peak flowering in May. Each bar is the share of Valeriana edulis observations in which someone actually recorded the reproductive state and found the plant in flower, not the raw number of flowering records. That distinction matters: people observe plants far more in spring than in winter, so a bare count of flowering records partly measures when people go outside. Dividing by the number examined removes that. 1,434 of 1,839 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. 5 months have fewer than 5 examined observations, so no proportion is drawn for them. This is still a global aggregate and not a forecast for your garden: the same species flowers on different dates in different hemispheres. Where a species has fewer than 30 flowering records we do not draw this chart at all. Computed from 10.15468/dl.cgje2x.

Also published as 12 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Patrinia ceratophylla Hook.
  • Patrinia longifolia Macnab
  • Phyllactis obovata Nutt.
  • Valeriana edulis f. glabra H.St.John
  • Valeriana edulis subsp. ciliata F.G.Mey.
  • Valeriana edulis subsp. edulis
  • Valeriana furfurescens A.Nelson
  • Valeriana knautioides Graebn.
  • Valeriana lesueurii Standl.
  • Valeriana obovata Schult.
  • Valeriana procera Kunth
  • Valeriana trachycarpa Rydb.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.