Northeast Wetland Flora
Field Office Guide to Plant Species
Viola cucullata Ait.
- Family: Violet (Violaceae)
- Flowering: April-July
- Field Marks: This violet is recognized by the heart-shaped leaves, no aerial stem, and club-shaped hairs on the inside of some of the blue petals.
- Habitat: Wet meadows, bogs, swampy woods.
- Habit: Perennial herb from a fleshy, branching rhizome.
- Stems: Only as underground rhizomes.
- Leaves: Basal, ovate to kidney-shaped, usually rounded at the tip, often heart-shaped at the base, round-toothed, smooth or nearly so, up to 5 inches wide; leaf stalks longer than the blades, smooth.
- Flowers: Solitary on smooth stalks that usually overtop the leaves, each flower deep blue-violet, usually with a white or yellowish center, with strong, dark lines, up to 1 1/2 inches across.
- Sepals: 5, green, free from each other, with ear-like lobes up to 1/6 inch long at base.
- Petals: 5, deep blue violet, free from each other, the lower spurred, with the spur shorter than the lateral petals; lateral petals with club-shaped hairs on the inner face.
- Stamens: 5.
- Pistils: Ovary superior.
- Fruits: Capsules ovoid, green, a little longer than the sepals, 1/2-3/4 inch long; seeds black, spherical.
- Notes: The fruits are usually produced from inconspicuous flowers that have no petals.
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