Translations:Manfred Klett: Von der Agrartechnologie zur Landbaukunst/1493/en

Valerian is found in the marginal and transitional zones of cultivated land, on loamy, humus-rich soils, preferably in moister, rather shaded locations — at woodland edges, on damp meadows, along the bank strips of streams and rivers, and at the foot of embankments with pressure water rising from the subsoil. In mountain valleys it appears up into considerable altitudes. It can also be cultivated in the garden. Whereas the dandelion, outside its brief flowering period, conceals itself among grasses and herbs, valerian rises from its initial leaf rosette stage in proud uprightness high above its surroundings, culminating in the white to pale-pink blossoming cyme. This consists of densely crowded, delicate, tiny individual florets that seem almost to dissolve in the intensely streaming fragrance. The stem principle dominates the entire plant. Reaching a growth height of up to two metres, the stem extends downward into the root zone, forming rhizomes, and upward into the air space, dispersing itself in the inflorescence. Upward and downward alike it divides itself — on the one side into the delicate flower stalks, on the other into the bulky rhizomes. In the stem, the earthly interpenetrates in a singular way with the working of air and warmth. The unpinnately compound leaves unfold in decussate arrangement. In the first year after sowing, the leaf metamorphosis is most distinctly pronounced. From the leaf rosette upward, the leaf sequence rises at ever greater intervals. The leaf stalk shortens progressively, and in the transition toward the inflorescence the leaves finally draw themselves altogether

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