Valerians, Valerianaceae, are a widespread group of generally herbacious Plants classified within the Honeysuckle family, Caprifoliaceae. These plants generally have a strong unpleasant smell, and despite a near global distribution and tolerance of a wide range of conditions as a group, individual species often have quite tight ecological niches, resulting in a both a high number of species and a vulnerability to changing conditions.
In a paper published in the journal PhytoKeys on 4 February 2022, Alejandro Villarroel of the Departamento de Biología at the Universidad de La Serena, and the Instituto de Conservación, Biodiversidad y Territorio at the Universidad Austral de Chile, independent researcher Kora Menegoz, Carlos Le Quesne of the Laboratorio de Dendrocronología y Cambio Global at the Universidad Austral de Chile, and Ricardo Moreno-Gonzalez of the Department of Palynology and Climate Dynamics at the University of Göttingen, and the Laboratorio de Biodiversidad y Ecología del Dosel at the Universidad Austral de Chile, describe a new species of Valerian from the Ñuble Region of Central Chile.
The new species is named Valeriana praecipitis, where 'Valeriana' is the most abundant Valerian genus, and the one that gives the group its name, and 'praecipitis', from the Latin for precipice, in reference to the steep cliffs the species was found growing on. The species has been observed only in the Andean ranges of the Ñuble Region of Chile, growing at altitudes of between 1530 and 1980 m above sealevel, in crevices and small terraces of south, southeast and southwest facing cliffs.
Valeriana praecipitis grows from a woody rhizome that can reach over 30 cm long and 2 cm in diameter. The plant itself can reach 65.5 cm high (although it often dangles rather than standing erect), with slivery green leaves, divided into lobes and up to 26 cm long, sprouting from its basal region and clusters of white flowers born on the upper stems.
The known range of Valeriana praecipitis is less than 500 km², within an area of the High Andes thought to be particularly vulnerable to climate change. The 2010–2017 mega-drought in Central Chile is considered to have caused the largest reduction in precipitation and snow cover in the past thousand years, and average temperatures in the region have increased steadily for the past decade. Since high altitude Plants tend to be particularly vulnerable to changes in conditions, and Valerians as a group tend to have narrow environmental requirements, Villarroel et al. recommend that Valeriana praecipitis be treated as Endangered under the terms of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species.
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