Question: This is a violet growing in the low, wet corner of my yard. Photos taken on May 14, 2024. I …
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Question
This is a violet growing in the low, wet corner of my yard. Photos taken on May 14, 2024. I thought I had photos of the capsules later on in the year, but I can't find them sadly. I believe it is Viola affinis and I used the Flora Novae Angliae key (which I just bought :-) ) Some features that match up are: leaves narrow-ovate, uniform teeth along margin, sepals lanceolate, peduncles glabrous, and of course its habitat.
Answer
Dear ryan3476, good morning. Your violet is a bit of a puzzle. The ciliate sepals and ciliate leaf blade margin (nicely visible in your images) put this in the Viola sororia complex. I can't tell whether or not the spurred petal is pubescent (it is often difficult to see in images that don't specifically try to tease this out). I would have happily called this Viola sororia s.s. except that the leaf blades are more narrow (relative to width) than I typically observe. I don't know what part of New England this violet was photographed from, which would make a difference based on which species are likely to be present that may have contributed (through hybridization) to the features we observe now. You can reach me at ahaines@nativeplanttrust.org if you want to discuss this violet further. Best wishes.
