wrote:
On Tue, 22 Mar 2005 16:21:58 +0000, Philippe Gautier
wrote:


I'm almost sure it's Valeriana officinalis, maybe a white subspecies
since I think the wild form is pink. I've worked in genetics on these
plants for 2 years so, i should know.


Hello,

Well, you're right - looking at this
[http://www.ville-ge.ch/cjb/BotSyst/A...CPR_VAL_1.jpg]
the flower is identical. I got all excited for a minute. But the
leaves look much darker in that picture than they are on the plant (the
leaves on my plant are quite yellowy-green), and look quite different.
The flower stems on my plant are thicker too. And the name rings no
bells, which I'm hoping it would if it was correct. Perhaps I should
take a pic of the leaves (obviously no flowers yet)? They are much
finer towards the flower stem, and get broader and bigger at the bottom
of the plant clump.

Hi Clare,

All I can say is that i remembered that even in wild populations of
Valerians, there was quite a large variety in leaves shape. In fact, i
was trying to find a correlation between any physical characteristic
(like leaves, size, etc) and the chemical composition of the essential
oil. So, I would not be surprised if in garden variety selected for
diferent characters, you can find an even bigger variety.

Philippe