Valerian, Valeriana officianalis, Setwall
THE valerian family contains about 400 herbaceous species throughout Europe and the Americas, but it is absent from Australasia.
Many of the species have aromatic properties and are not always popular, although the Himalayan plant Nardostachys jatamansi is the source of a rare and costly ancient medicinal ointment and perfume: spikenard.
Valerian plants are tall and bushy. On poor rocky soils they may be dwarfed, but in their more common marshy and moist habitats they can reach five feet in height.
The lower parts of the stems are slightly woody, and the pointed leaves sometimes have teeth or “fingers”. In Barnard Castle their preferred habitat is in stone walls, and many can be seen along Newgate and Queen Street.
The flowers appear in June, but can still be found as late as November. They are in a cluster, slightly reminiscent of a pink broccoli arrangement.
Although mostly pink, the inflorescences can be a deeper red and occasionally white. They have a vanilla-like scent which, when the plants are growing in large numbers, can be overpowering.
The individual flowers deserve examination with a lens. There are five petals, flattened as a rosette, which are part of a long tube. The yellow stamens protrude from the tube. After the flowers wither, the tube sends up a beautiful feathery down of dandelion-like seeds. These are blown away, and many find their homes in cracks in stone walls.
Valerian is a valuable plant. (Officianalis means used in medicine.) The roots have sedative properties and are used widely in herbal preparations.
The herbalist John Gerard wrote of the plant as Setwall (from “zedoale”, an old French name), and said it was good against the pestilence, and that it was held in such veneration among poor people of northern parts that “no broths, potage or physicall meats are worth anything if Setwall were not at an end”. And he quoted this verse:
They that will have thrir heale
Must put Setwall in their keale
All my attempts to find the origin of the word “keale” have failed, but I take the couplet to mean:
For fitness always use this shrub,
Medicinally in your grub.
Dr Richard Warren is a botanist from Barnard Castle
