Viola labradorica

Native

Dry to moderate moisture. Woods, meadows. Full sun to shade.

June to August

Light blue to pale violet

½″ to 8″

This is a ½″ to 8″ tall, erect to drooping, perennial forb that rises on several clustered stems from an oblique, occasionally branched rhizome. It forms clumps.

The stems are erect to drooping, leafy, and usually hairy. Leaves and flowers appear on the same stem.

Basal leaves are large and on long stalks. They are thin, pale green, hairless, and kidney-shaped to roundish. They are rounded or blunt at the tip and heart-shaped at the base. The basal lobes are widely open, not overlapping. The margins have rounded teeth. Stem leaves are similar, smaller, alternate, round, ⅝″ to 1½″ wide, broadly-angled at the tip, and heart-shaped at the base.

The inflorescence is numerous single flowers on slender, 2″ to 3″ long stalks rising from the leaf axils. The long-stalked flowers are held above the leaves. There are small, broadly lance-shaped, stipules at the base of the flower stalks. The stipules are bristly for more than half of their length.

The flowers are ½″ to ¾″ wide. There are 5 petals in an arrangement typical of violets—two upper, two lateral, and a broad lower lip. The petals are light blue to pale violet, rarely white. The lateral and lower petals are pale or whitish with dark veins near the center. The lower petal has a ⅛″ to 3 ⁄16″ long spur at the base that curls upward behind the flower. The lateral petals have tufts of white hair near the center (bearded). The plant produces flowers when it is only ½″ in height.

The fruit is an elliptical, ⅛″ to 3 ⁄16″ long capsule with light brown seeds. When the plant is in fruit the stipules are dry and translucent.

Long-spurred violet (Viola rostrata) has a longer spur, ¼″ to ½″ long. The lateral petals are not bearded.

Great-spurred violet (Viola selkirkii) leaves and flowers rise from the ground on separate stalks. The basal lobes of the leaves are narrowly open, sometimes overlapping. The spur is rounded, blunt and tends to be larger, ⅛″ to ¼″ long. The lateral petals are not bearded.