Relaxing Sleep™

Valerian is a perennial upright plant with compound, mostly opposite dark green lance-shaped leaflets and a hollow stem.^3,4 The flowers of the plant are small in size and in a compound cyme arrangement of terminal clusters in white or pink.^3,6 The plant’s roots are aromatic, somewhat fleshy and white to yellow, growing in creeping rhizomes.^3,4

Passionflower is a fast-growing, evergreen in tropical climates, climbing, herbaceous perennial that can reach about 20 feet (approximately 6 meters).^2,3 Its hollow, lignified and slightly pubescent stems are often referred to as vines, with axillary tendrils to support climbing.^2,3,6 The dark green leaves are alternately spaced and palmately shaped with three to five lobes and a serrate margin with a whiteish underside.^2,5,6 The large fringed flowers are solitary on a long peduncle with five white to purple petals and five sepals with lavender, pink or purple filamented crowns.^2,3,6 Spreading occurs by root suckers and stolons from creeping, above-ground stems.³ Its fleshy fruits are egg-shaped berries that turn from green to yellow when mature and edible in the fall.^5,6 The dark-colored, flattened seeds are numerous and in an ovoid shape enclosed in a yellow to brown, arillate pulp.^2,6

Hops is an herbaceous perennial and dioecious vine that can climb up to 10 meters.^3,6,8 Leaves are dark green, cordate and palmately shaped, with deep lobes and a finely toothed margin.^4,6,8 Most leaves are positioned oppositely on the stem, but some can be alternately positioned at the vine tips.⁸ Stems are long, hairy, bendable and hardy, and they yield from a crown.^3,4,6,8 The vines intertwine and wind around supports.^6,8 Main root is a semi-deep rooted, woody rhizome with an arrangement of underground stems of shallow feeding fibrous root offshoots.^3,6 Male flowers are in loose panicles with five bracts and stamens, stemming from the axils.⁴ Female flowers are pale-green on the leafy cone-shaped catkins.⁴ Fruits are strobiles covered in overlapping yellow-green bracts.^4,8 Seeds are brown achenes, located at the base of the bracts.⁸

Chamomile is a herbaceous annual that grows to approximately 1 foot 8 inches tall and 1 foot wide.^3,6 Its stem is upright and branching.⁴ The leaves resemble feathers with those at the top divided tripinnately, and those at the bottom bipinnately divided.^4,6 All are in alternate positioning.⁴ Flowers are characteristic of the Daisy family and have a cone-shaped capitulum with a hollow receptacle.^4,6 The downward-pointing white ray flowers and tubular yellow disk flowers have flattened involucre bracts on the underside.^4,8 The fruit is yellowish in color, smooth and small.⁴ The seed is an ovoid achene.⁴

Catnip is a herbaceous, monoecious perennial that is fast-growing and up to 3 feet 3 inches (1 meter) in height by 2 feet (0.6 meter) in width.^3,6 Leaves are oppositely positioned and cordately shaped with a toothed margin.^6,8 They are covered in a whiteish soft hair, more so on the underside of the leaves, giving it a grayish covering.⁸ Stems are square, hairy and erect, and they are branched with a multitude of leaves.⁸ Flowers are small, two-lipped and displayed in abundant, whorled bunches in blue, pink or white on a short peduncle.^6,8 Distinguishable feature to the Nepeta genus is a calyx tube containing 15 ribs.⁸