Duration: Perennial

Nativity: Native

Lifeform: Forb/Herb

General: Herbaceous perennials, stems leafy to subscapose, plants strongly scented with short and tuber-like rootstocks.

Leaves: Opposite, pinnate with 3 or more leaflets, (basal leaves rarely simple), leaflets broadly ovate to oblong-lanceolate, margins coarsely serrate or lacinate, thin and flaccid, with inconspicuous or spreading lateral veins, blades petioled.

Flowers: Pink or whitish, funnelform to rotate, 1-2 mm long, the corolla limb nearly regular, the tube swollen on one side, more or less hairy, the lobes about equal, calyx of pappus-like bristles, at first involute, later spreading, stamens 3, borne in open, elongate panicles of loosely-flowered cymes.

Fruits: Achene, strigose-puberulent, solitary.

Ecology: Found in rich soils in coniferous forests, from 5,500-7,000 ft (1676-2134 m); flowering July-October.

Distribution: Arizona and New Mexico to Central America.

Notes: McDougall used for genus description only. Distribution data taken from USDA Plants and Kearney and Peebles.

Ethnobotany: There is no use recorded for this species, but other species in this genus have uses.

Synonyms: Valeriana gracilis, Valeriana tenella

Editor: LCrumbacher 2012

Etymology: Valeriana is a medieval Latin name either referring to the personal name Valerius, or to the country of Valeria, a province of the Roman empire, or to the word valere, "to be healthy and strong" from its use as a folk medicine in the treatment of nervousness and hysteria, while the meaning of sobrafolia is unknown.