Taxonomy
Family: Violaceae
Habitat
Cold, calcareous wet areas.
Associates
Distribution
Found primarily in mountainous regions of western North America but extending eastward into the northeastern U.S. and southeastern Canada.
Morphology
Acaulescent, glabrous perennial from a thick, fleshy rhizome. Leaves glabrous, rather small, rarely up to 7 cm wide; flowers elevated somewhat above the leaves, the lateral petals directed forward at an angle, tapering to an almost clawed base; spurred petal bearded or not; cleistogamous flowers on erect stalks; fruit green, short, egg-shaped; seeds green-black.
Notes
Flowers late April to June
Wetland indicator: FACW
A plant of northern calcareous wet areas, not really bogs but fens and wet depressions over limestone or calcareous shores. These plants were photographed in an alvar in northern NY.
References
Gleason, Henry A. and A. Cronquist. 1991. Manual of Vascular Plants of Northeastern United States and Adjacent Canada. Second Ed.
The New York Botanical Garden. Bronx, NY
Little, R.J. and
L.E. McKinney. 2015. Viola. In: Flora of North America North of
Mexico, Vol. 6. Oxford University Press, New York and Oxford.
USDA, NRCS. 2002. The PLANTS Database, Version 3.5 (http://plants.usda.gov).
National Plant Data Center, Baton Rouge, LA 70874-4490 USA.
Michael Hough © 2018 |