UW Burke Herbarium species comparison

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Viola odorata

Viola sempervirens

sweet blue violet

evergreen violet, redwood violet
Habit Low, fragrant, creeping, soft-hairy perennial with stolons that root at the nodes. Puberulent perennial from scaly rhizomes, with slender, elongate stolons, the aerial stems up two 5 cm. long.
Leaves

Leaves tufted, cordate and rounded, petiolate, enlarging in summer.

Leaves blades cordate-lanceolate to cordate-ovate, 1-3 cm. broad, thick and leathery, persisting through the winter;

petioles 2-10 cm. long; herbage spotted with tiny purplish blotches;

stipules brownish, lanceolate, membranous, mostly entire.
Flowers

Flowers blue-violet or white, rarely lilac, pink or yellow;

sepals blunt.

Flowers 5-15 mm. long, the spur short, saccate;

peduncles exceeding the leaves;

petals lemon-yellow to gold, the lower 3 purplish-penciled, the lateral pair yellow-bearded;

style head short-bearded.
Fruits

Fruit a 3-valved capsule, ovary superior, placentation parietal.

Fruit a purplish-mottled, 3-valved capsule, ovary superior, placentation parietal, seeds brown.

Viola odorata

Viola sempervirens
Flowering time March-September March-June
Habitat Sheltered, disturbed areas in somewhat moist soil. Moist woods from low to middle elevations in the mountains.
Distribution
Occurring on both sides of the Cascades crest in Washington; British Columbia to California, east to Idaho; also in eastern North America.
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Occurring west of the Cascades crest and east in the Columbia River Gorge in Washington; British Columbia to California.
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Origin Introduced from Europe Native
Conservation status Not of concern Not of concern
Sibling taxa
V. adunca, V. arvensis, V. canadensis, V. flettii, V. glabella, V. howellii, V. lanceolata, V. langsdorffii, V. macloskeyi, V. nephrophylla, V. nuttallii, V. orbiculata, V. palustris, V. pluviae, V. purpurea, V. renifolia, V. riviniana, V. selkirkii, V. sempervirens, V. sheltonii, V. sororia, V. tricolor, V. trinervata, V. ×wittrockiana
V. adunca, V. arvensis, V. canadensis, V. flettii, V. glabella, V. howellii, V. lanceolata, V. langsdorffii, V. macloskeyi, V. nephrophylla, V. nuttallii, V. odorata, V. orbiculata, V. palustris, V. pluviae, V. purpurea, V. renifolia, V. riviniana, V. selkirkii, V. sheltonii, V. sororia, V. tricolor, V. trinervata, V. ×wittrockiana
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the University of Washington's Burke Herbarium.



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