description
Blue violet is a hardy, herbaceous flowering perennial of the Violaceae
family. The familiar leaves are heart-shaped, slightly downy, especially
beneath, on stalks rising alternately from a creeping rhizome or underground
stem, the blades of the young leaves rolled up from each side into the
middle on the face of the leaf into two tight coils. The flower-stalks arise
from the axils of the leaves and bear single flowers, with a pair of scaly
bracts placed a little above the middle of the stalk.
The flowers are generally deep purple, but lilac, pale rose-colored or white
variations are also frequent, and all these tints may sometimes be
discovered in different plants growing on the same bank. The sweet-scented
violet appears at the end of February and has finished blooming by the end
of April.
They bear five sepals extended at their bases, and five unequal petals, the
lower one lengthened into a hollow spur beneath and the lateral petals with a
hairy centre line. The anthers are united into a tube round the three-celled
capsule, the two lower ones furnished with spurs which are enclosed within the
spur of the corolla.
common names & nomenclature
Viola refers to the violet color of the flowers and odorata refers to the sweet scent of the flowers.
Also known as:
sweet violet, blue violet, english violet, garden violet, purple violet, sweet-scented violet, violet, wood violet, common violet, florist’s violet