Viola blanda (Large-leaved Wood Violet) - photos and description

 


15 cm ruler

 

 

 

 

 

General: Small white-flowered violet having scapes with a soft pubescence. All stems from a single rootstalk, there are no leafy stems.

Taxonomic key to Saskatchewan's violets.

Flowers: Flowers single on peduncles, are lightly bearded on side petals, the lower petal with no hairs. We measured the flowers to be 10 - 13 mm in diameter, the spur petal 1 cm long. Spur is blunt and short measured at 4 mm long and 2 mm wide.

Leaves: Leaves are basal, toothed and orbicular to cordate, apex usually pointed. Leaves can grow rather large for such a small plant, to 4 cm long, 3.5 cm wide. Soft pubescence petioles and undersides of leaves. Top of leaves hairless.

Height: We measured scapes to 7 cm tall, leaves to 9 cm tall.

Habitat: Moist woodlands on the eastern fringe of the province.

Abundance: A plant more common in central Canada, this plant is very rare in Saskatchewan, ranked as an S2 (as of 2021) by the Saskatchewan Conservation Data Centre.

Origin: Native.

When and where photographed: Above photos taken June 4th, hillsides in heavy forest, Porcupine Hills, about 400 km northeast of our home in Regina, SK.