Flora of North America species comparison

The green links below add additional plants to the comparison table. Blue links lead to other Web sites.
enable glossary links

Viola novae-angliae

New England blue violet, New England violet
Habit Plants perennial, acaulescent, not stoloniferous, 5–50 cm; rhizomes thick, fleshy.
Leaves

basal, 2–8, ascending to erect;

stipules linear-lanceolate to broadly lanceolate, margins entire, sometimes distally glandular, apex acute;

petiole 5–25 cm, densely pubescent;

blade unlobed, narrowly ovate to narrowly deltate, 3.5–7 × 2–5 cm, base cordate, margins uniformly crenate to serrate, ciliate or eciliate, apex acute, surfaces usually glabrous, rarely pubescent.
Peduncles

3–25 cm, glabrous or pubescent.
Flowers

sepals lanceolate to ovate, margins ciliate or eciliate, auricles 1–2 mm;

petals light to dark blue- or dark purple-violet or reddish purple, lowest and sometimes lateral 2 purple-veined, lateral 2 bearded, lowest bearded or beardless, 15–25 mm, spur same color as petals, gibbous, 2–3 mm;

style head beardless; cleistogamous flowers on prostrate to ascending peduncles.
Capsules

ellipsoid, 5–12 mm, glabrous.
Seeds

beige, mottled to bronze, 1.5–2.5 mm.
2n

= 54.

Viola novae-angliae
Phenology Flowering Apr–Jun.
Habitat Gravelly, wet, rocky shores of lakes and streams, meadows
Elevation 0–100 m (0–300 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
ME; MI; MN; WI; MB; NB; ON; QC
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

L. E. McKinney (1992) considered Viola novae-angliae to be a variety of V. sororia; N. L. Gil-Ad (1997) treated it as a distinct species. H. E. Ballard and S. C. Gawler (1994) also considered V. novae-angliae distinct and suggested it might be a hybrid between V. sagittata and V. sororia. Viola novae-angliae appears to have a close affinity with V. sororia; we recognize them here as separate species.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 6, p. 139.
Parent taxa Violaceae > Viola
Sibling taxa
V. adunca, V. affinis, V. arvensis, V. bakeri, V. beckwithii, V. bicolor, V. biflora, V. blanda, V. brittoniana, V. canadensis, V. canina, V. charlestonensis, V. clauseniana, V. cucullata, V. cuneata, V. douglasii, V. egglestonii, V. epipsila, V. flettii, V. frank-smithii, V. glabella, V. guadalupensis, V. hallii, V. hastata, V. hirsutula, V. howellii, V. japonica, V. labradorica, V. lanceolata, V. langsdorffii, V. lithion, V. lobata, V. macloskeyi, V. missouriensis, V. nephrophylla, V. nuttallii, V. ocellata, V. odorata, V. orbiculata, V. palmata, V. palustris, V. pedata, V. pedatifida, V. pedunculata, V. pinetorum, V. praemorsa, V. primulifolia, V. prionantha, V. pubescens, V. purpurea, V. quercetorum, V. renifolia, V. riviniana, V. rostrata, V. rotundifolia, V. sagittata, V. selkirkii, V. sempervirens, V. septemloba, V. sheltonii, V. sororia, V. striata, V. subsinuata, V. tomentosa, V. tricolor, V. trinervata, V. tripartita, V. umbraticola, V. utahensis, V. vallicola, V. villosa, V. walteri
Synonyms V. septentrionalis var. grisea, V. sororia var. grisea, V. sororia var. novae-angliae
Name authority House: Rhodora 6: 226, plate 59. (1904)
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



Type/paste one or more Latin names into the boxes above; matching taxa will show up below the box as you type. You can use the up/down arrow keys to move through the list.

(If the plant you're looking for doesn't show up in the auto-complete list, that means it either isn't described in Flora of North America yet, or it's listed under a synonym. And please note that Flora of North America is still missing several plant families, including Fabaceae, Apiaceae, Boraginaceae, and Polemoniaceae.)

Choose a data source: Flora of North America

The species comparison tool is brought to you by:
Northwest Wildflowers