• NSF NEON | Open Data to Understand our Ecosystems
  • Biorepository Data Portal

  • Home
  • Search
    • Sample search
    • Map search
    • Dynamic Species List
    • Taxonomic Explorer
  • Images
    • Image Browser
    • Image Search
  • Datasets
    • Research Datasets and Special Collections
    • Checklist: Research Sites - Invertebrates
    • Checklist: Research Sites - Plants
    • Checklist: Research Sites - Vertebrates
  • Sample Use
    • Sample Use Policy
    • Sample Request
    • Sample Archival Request
    • Data Usage Policy
  • Additional Information
    • Tutorials and Help
    • About NEON
    • NEON Data Portal
    • ASU Biocollections
    • About Symbiota
  • Getting Started
Login New Account Sitemap
Valerianella locusta  

No occurrences found

Family: Caprifoliaceae
Lewiston cornsalad
[Valerianella olitoria (L.) Willd.]
Images
not available
  • vPlants
  • Gleason & Cronquist
  • Resources
The Morton Arboretum
Annual herb 10 - 40 cm long Stem: angled, forking, slightly hairy. Leaves: opposite, minutely hairy along margin and sometimes short-haired, with the lower leaves more or less stalked and broadly inverted lance-shaped. The other leaves are stalkless, 1 - 7 cm long, 3 - 18 mm wide, oblong, and toothless or with a few teeth near the base. Flowers: borne terminally in a small compact cluster (glomerule), subtended by spoon-shaped bracts that are hairy along the margins, 1.5 - 2 mm across, with minute or absent sepals, white to pale bluish petals fused into a five-lobed funnel shape, and three stamens. Fruit: dry, yellowish, 2 - 4 mm long, three-chambered with one chamber fertile and one-seeded and the other chambers empty. The fertile chamber has a thick corky mass on its back.

Similar species: Valerianella species have non- or few-toothed stem leaves and tiny or absent calyx lobes. Neither Valerianella chenopodifolia nor Valerianella umbilicata have fruit with a corky mass on the fertile chamber.

Flowering: mid May to early June

Habitat and ecology: Introduced from Europe, this species is rare in disturbed areas.

Occurence in the Chicago region: non-native

Etymology: Valerianella is a diminutive of Valeriana, referring to the similarity between the two genera. Locusta means "growing in an enclosed area."

Author: The Morton Arboretum

Vascular plants of NE US and adjacent Canada
Annual 1-4 dm; lvs ciliolate and sometimes short-hairy, the lower broadly oblanceolate or broader, and ±petiolate, the others sessile and more oblong, entire or the upper with a few teeth near the base, 1-7 cm נ3-18 mm; cor white or pale bluish, 1.5-2 mm; fr 2(-4) mm, the fertile locule bearing a thick corky mass on the back; groove between the sterile locules narrow, shallow, and inconspicuous; 2n=14(-18). Moist, open places, often in disturbed soil; native of Europe, now widely established in the U.S. Apr.-June. (V. olitoria)

Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.

©The New York Botanical Garden. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
Valerianella locusta
Open Interactive Map
Click to Display
0 Total Images
NSF NEON | Open Data to Understand our Ecosystems The National Ecological Observatory Network is a major facility fully funded by the National Science Foundation. Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.