Viola selkirkii Pursh ex Goldie - Great-Spurred Violet


 

|  back  | forward |

Viola selkirkii - (image 1 of 4)

 

Taxonomy

Family: Violaceae

Habitat

Moist rich humus and on rotting logs in cool, shaded, calcareous woods at the foot of slopes, often under hemlocks.

Associates

 

 Distribution

Newfoundland west to British Columbia, south to MA, CT, NY, MI, MN, SD, and CO.

Morphology

Acaulescent perennial from a slender rhizome, stolons not produced. Leaf blades unlobed, ovate or rarely orbiculate, cordate at the base, margins crenate to crenulate or serrate, eciliate, rounded to acute at the apex, strigose on the upper surface. Sepals lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate, auricles 1-2 mm; petals all beardless, pale violet, the lower three dark-purple veined at the base, spur petal 8-13 mm, spur pale to deep violet, elongate, 4-7 mm; capsule ovoid to ellipsoid, 4-8 mm, glabrous; seeds brown, 1-2 mm.

Notes

Flowers mid April to mid May

Wetland indicator: NA

The large, round-tipped spur and beardless petals help separate this species from other blue ascaulescent violets.

References

Haines, A. 2011. Flora Novae Angliae: a manual for the identification of native and naturalized higher vascular plants of New England. Yale University Press, New Haven, CT.
 

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.

 


Home

 

 Michael Hough © 2017