Valerian flowers
Photo: Arne Ader
Translation: Liis
Valerian.
In a Japanese animated children’s cartoon a fat greedy cat is lured into a trap with a giant jar of mashed valerian. Estonian cats too are attracted by valerian (Valeriana officinalis), but we humans don’t feel any very special scent from the plant, or then only when we dig up the roots of it – these smell enough to be felt by our nose too. That smell is rather pungent. Those who want to try to make their own calming preparation from valerian should note and remember the places where the plant grows now when it flowers; in the autumn, when the right time for collecting the roots comes, it is difficult to find.
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