Valeriana pyrenaica – June 2nd 2025 – Pyrenean Valerian

This plant’s home is the mountainous border of Spain and France. Three hundred years ago its pinkish-lilac flowers and statuesque appearance appealed to British gardeners and thus it became an ornamental garden plant in Britain. It appeared in the plant list from the Chelsea Garden in 1752 and was grown here from ‘at least’ 1692. However, it escaped from gardens – the first British record from the wild was from Scotland in 1782 at the village of Blair Adam in Fife (it was there in 1730 that William Adam, Scottish architect, built Blairadam House and landscaped the surrounding estate with its beech woodlands).

Valeriana pyrenaica is in full flower May-July. Image: Chris Jeffree.

Evidently, it likes lowland Scotland, and is found in many locations, usually near waterways where trees are growing. The BSBI gives the habitat as “damp woodland and shady hedge-banks, often close to human habitations”.

V. pyrenaica, stems erect, pale lilac flowers in dense heads. Image: Chris Jeffree.

Valeriana pyrenaica is a perennial plant, and populations are said to be ‘long-lived’.  It is up to 1.2 metres tall with large heart-shaped toothed leaves that are softly hairy. Some of the upper leaves have pairs of lateral leaflets. The flowers are produced in early summer, in strange-smelling terminal clusters, attractive to flying insects. The plant is fairly distinctive, although when I first saw it a few years ago I immediately thought of Hemp Agrimony (it’s really quite different – look at its leaves).

V. pyrenaica, showing small lateral leaflets. Image: Blackford Pond, Edinburgh, 30.5.2025, John Grace.

 It bears some resemblance to our native plant, the Common Valerian (Valeriana officinalis) but that one has white (or very pale pink) flowers and pinnate leaves. In traditional medicine the root of V. officinalis is a tranquillizer and sold widely for insomnia, anxiety, stress and depression. Valeriana pyrenaica is much less studied for its possible pharmacological properties, perhaps because it is not a common plant. Very little ecological research of any kind has been carried out on this species, although its characteristics are well-known to plant nurseries who promote it in terms such as this from bethchatto.co.uk  “above clumps of large heart-shaped leaves stand maroon-stained stems carrying lacy heads of tiny lilac flowers which produce clouds of fluffy seed-heads creating a screen-like effect. Seeds around mildly. A nice feature plant for moist soil or a rich border in part shade. Like all valerians, an excellent insect attracter”.

V. pyrenaica, unusually large population by the A68. Image: Chris Jeffree.

Another Valerian from southern Europe should have more appeal to gardeners because it is much more colourful: the Red Valerian Valeriana ruber (formerly called Centranthus ruber) was introduced to gardens here in 1596. It has spread throughout the warm temperate parts of the world and is now thought of as a weed and considered to be invasive in some regions of the USA and South Africa. It tolerates alkaline conditions and sometimes grows on or around old walls. The BSBI describe its habitats thus: “naturalized on coastal cliffs and shingle, limestone rock outcrops and pavements, in quarries, on railway banks, on old walls and buildings, at the base of walls on pavements and roadsides and in other well-drained, disturbed and open habitats including gardens, allotments and waste ground”. In Britain it is more common in the south, and in Scotland it is most often seen in the lowlands by the coast. About 10 per cent of the Red Valerian plants bear white flowers.

Left, Valeriana pyrenaica native to the Pyrenees and right, Valeriana ruber from the Mediterranean. V. ruber often grows on derelict sites among fragments of broken mortar; its leaves are somewhat bluish (‘glaucus’) and the plant is shorter (50 cm versus 120 cm). Images: left, Chris Jeffree; right, John Grace.

 The name Valerian is after the Roman emperor Publius Licinius Valerianus who used it as medicine. His own name Valerianus is from the Latin verb valeo which translates as ‘to be strong’ (however, he was captured in battle, humiliated and killed by the Persians).

Valeriana pyrenaica records, from GBIF, showing early distribution and subsequent spread.

An alternative English name for V. pyrenaica is Capon’s Tail Grass, but the plant is neither like a grass nor like a capon’s tail.

The distribution of two long-established alien plants from Europe: left, Valeriana pyrenaica from the Pyrenees and right Valeriana ruber from the Mediterranean. Data from BSBI/Maps.

References consulted

Patočka J and Jakl J. (2010). Biomedically relevant chemical constituents of Valeriana officinalis. Journal of applied biomedicine, 8(1), pp.11-18.

De Castro, O et al. (2025). Can we rescue Centranthus (Caprifoliaceae: Valerianoideae) from the Valeriana sea?. Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society, boaf019.

Internet sources

https://www.exclassics.com/herbal/herbalv40107.htm

Valeriana pyrenaica L. in BSBI Online Plant Atlas 2020, eds P.A. Stroh, T. A. Humphrey, R.J. Burkmar, O.L. Pescott, D.B. Roy, & K.J. Walker. https://plantatlas2020.org/atlas/2cd4p9h.26w [Accessed 29/05/2025]

Gerard’s herbal on Valerian: https://www.exclassics.com/herbal/herbalv40107.htm