Translations:Benutzer:Arian/Klett-Mini-Test/1578/en

The individual floret is inconspicuous, bringing its pale-pink colouring fully into its own only in the inflorescence as a whole. While the blossoms on the uppermost tier of the cyme are opening into flower, those on the lower tiers are fading and passing over into seed. This accounts for the strikingly long flowering time. The blossom shows, with its five petals — unequal in size and fused at the base into a tube — and with its three anthers, a marked asymmetry. Hoerner interprets this as "a sign of a very strong individualization, caused by an astrality reaching deep into the plant." This indication is further supported by the fact that the stem — or rather the vertical principle — dominates the form-building of valerian: a mark of the fact that the spiritual archetype of this plant, its very being, makes itself sense-perceptible in the vertical axis of earth and sun. This circumstance also bears witness to valerian's strong relationship to light and equally to warmth, apparent in the high content of combustible substances. Warmth is the primal element and the bearer of being in all that exists and becomes.