Duration: Perennial

Nativity: Native

Lifeform: Forb/Herb

General: Perennial, low-growing herb, to 30 cm tall, stems not branching, herbage glabrous to slight strigose at the leaf bases, may be ciliate, herbage arising in clusters from branching rhizomes.

Leaves: Mid-seasonal leaves heart-shaped to widely ovate, simple, basal, with crenate margins, tip obtuse, base cordate to truncate, leaves to 4.5 cm long, borne on petioles to 5-23 cm long.

Flowers: Deep blue-violet, some cleistogamous, the lower petals 10-19 mm long, including the spur, the spur blunt, sepal auricles elongated, flowers axillary or borne on pedicels to 10 cm long.

Fruits: Glabrous fruits to 11 mm long. Seeds ovoid, many, with a prominent caruncle.

Ecology: Found in wet or damp soils along streams and on shady hillsides in coniferous forests, from 4,000-9,500 ft (1219-2896 m); flowering March-July.

Notes: Determine this species by its deep purple flowers, the lower petals with a blunt spur, and the non-branching stems.

Synonyms: Viola affinis, Viola chalcosperma, Viola langloisii, Viola langloisii var. pedatiloba, Viola missouriensis, Viola rosacea, Viola sororia subsp. affinis, Viola sororia var. affinis, Viola sororia var. missouriensis

Editor: LCrumbacher, 2011

In wet, hard, white, and slightly acid clay soil, either in woodland with sweet gum or in the open on sweet gum land; less frequent in wet woodland and springy places. Infrequent but often locally abundant in the southern part of the state and rare in the northern part.