Valerianella P. Miller. Common name: Cornsalad.

Key to Valerianella

A genus of about 60-70 species, herbs, of temperate North America, Eurasia, and n. Africa. Christenhusz, Fay, & Byng (2018) propose combining Valerianella into Valeriana, a course not taken here.

ID notes: Valerianella species exhibit an interesting set of fruit polymorphisms; the fruit forms in a single species are often strikingly different, and these forms were traditionally regarded as separate taxa. Ware (1983) demonstrated that they were under simple genetic control, and that different fruit forms were found in the same population. Thus, some taxa previously considered distinct are best considered mere fruit types. The fruit consists of three locules, one of which is fertile and dorsal to or more-or-less flanked by the two sterile locules. The sterile locules may be elongate, forming (between them) a groove, or they may be expanded laterally well beyond the width of the fertile locule into flattened or bulbous wings. In V. locusta, there is additionally a corky mass on the side of the fertile locule opposite the two sterile locules.

References: Christenhusz, Fay, & Byng (2018); Dyal (1938); Ware (1983); Weberling & Bittrich (2016) In Kadereit & Bittrich (2016). Show full citations.

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