Plant of the Day

October 08, 2026

VALERIAN

The ancient name of this plant, according to Dioscorides, was Phu, and in botanical phraseology Garden Valerian is still Valeriana Phu. The Latins called the plant Valeriana, some say from its medicinal value, others from one Valerius, who is reputed first to have used the herb in medicine; but the derivation is really uncertain. The old English name of the plant was Setewale, Setwal, or Set-wall. Chaucer writes:—

“Ther springen herbes grete and smale,

The Licoris and the Setewale.”

And, speaking of the Clerk of Oxenforde, he says:—

“And he himself was swete as is the rote

Of Licoris, or any Setewale.”

Gerarde tells us that the plant was known in his day by the name of Valerian, Capon’s Tail, and Setwall, but that the last name really belonged to the Zedoaria, which is not Valerian. The old herbalist also records that the medicinal virtues of Valerian were, among the poorer classes in the North, held in such veneration, “that no broths, pottage, or physical meats are worth anything if Setwall were not at an end: whereupon some woman poet or other hath made these verses:—

‘They that will have their heale

Must put Setwall in their keale.’”

Cats are so fond of the perfume of Valerian, that they are said to dig up the roots, rolling on them with ecstatic delight, and gnawing them to pieces. The action of the Valerian-root (which the herbalists found out was very like a cat’s eye) on the nervous system of some cats undoubtedly produces in time a kind of pleasant intoxication. Rats are also attracted by the odour of this plant.

Astrologers say that Valerian is under the rule of Mercury.