Violets & Pansies
What are they?
Violets and pansies are a closely-related group of low-growing, annual or perennial species. Their cheery appearance in spring is much enjoyed by many and the group includes popular garden bedding plants, as well as wild natives.
Where are they found?
Native violets are mostly plants of old woodland or unimproved grassland (with some rare species of wetlands), while pansies are largely plants of open, disturbed ground.
Identification
Violets are all fairly similar and identification can be difficult without care. Flowers are all rather similar, but the colour of the spur at the back of the flower is useful. For some species, the hairiness of the leaves is useful. Pansies are extremely variable in colour and identification should involve the size of the flowers.
Sweet Violet Viola odorata
Common; native in woodland and also much introduced in gardens, parks and churchyards. Flowers late February to May, usually the first violet in flower in spring. Plants have stolons and form extensive mats; flowers may be dark or light violet, wine red or white, with a dark spur and blunt-tipped sepals. Leaves more broadly rounded than those of other violets, hairy below and on petioles, with hairs flat to the surface. In the most natural of settings, plants tend to be the variety odorata, which has deep purple flowers.
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Sweet Violet Viola odorata
Plants of varieties other than the deep purple variety odorata (see above) are frequent throughout the countryside and may be of natural origin or may be occurring as escapes from cultivation or where widely planted in semi-natural settings such as old churchyards, suburban woodland and urban locations. The variety dumetorum has white flowers with a purple spur, with the side petals having a small cluster of stout hairs like a 'beard' in the mouth of the flower. Variety imberbis is white but without the beard, while variety subcarnea has paler, wine-coloured flowers. Rarely, the pale yellow-flowered variety sulphurea may be found as a garden escape. Some plants have flowers that are whitish, weakly marked with pale violet; these may be plants of mixed parentage between odorata and dumetorum.
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Hairy Violet Viola hirta
A scarce and declining species, usually found in short turf in chalky places. Flowers March to May, pale bluish-violet. Plants without stolons, forming small clumps of discreet plants. Leaves hairy below and on petioles, with hairs spreading or erect, not flat.
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Early Dog Violet Viola reichenbachiana
Common in woods and shady places on boulder clay but mostly absent on lighter, sandy soils. Flowers March to May; flower spur straight, darker than petals; petals relatively narrow, the upper often erect. Leaves hairless.
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Common Dog Violet Viola riviniana
Common in woods and shady places as well as in more open, grassy places. Flowers March to May; flower spur curved, paler than petals; petals relatively broad. Leaves hairless.
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Heath Dog Violet Viola canina
Scarce but sometimes very locally common in grassy places on sandy soil, including coastal dunes. Flowers April to June peaking a little later than other dog violets; flower spur pale, often slightly yellowish; petals with a subtly light greyish blue tone. Leaves hairless.
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Purple-leaved Dog Violet Viola riviniana Purpurea Group
Occasional as a garden plant and rarely found as a garden throw-out or escape from cultivation. Flowers May to June; flower spur pale. This popular garden form has dark, blackish-purplish leaves.
Note: for many years, this plant was (and still is) grown in horticulture as Viola labradorica, a species which may not be in culitvation in the UK. It is some years now since the mistake was corrected to the current name, but old names can take a long time to change!
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Marsh Violet Viola palustris
A native but rare species with the main regional population being in acid, marshy places in the Norfolk Broads. Flowers April to June, paler than those of other species with darker veins. Leaves broad, more or less kidney-shaped and hairless.
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Horned Pansy Viola cornuta
Rare; once recorded as a garden escape from Norfolk. Flowers May to June. Flowers violet-purple with long, pointed spur at the back and long, pointed sepals.
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Garden Pansy Viola x wittrockiana
Popular garden plants with cheery flowers that occasionally self-seed or otherwise find their way onto rough or untended ground in urban areas. Flowers almost any month of the year; petals seemingly come in almost any colour, with often dark marks that more or less form a 'face'. Many modern varieties have large flowers, up to 10cm across but others are much smaller and very similar to the now rare, native Wild Pansy.
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Wild Pansy Viola tricolor ssp. tricolor
(Heartsease). A once common annual of arable and disturbed land but now rather scarce and continuing to decline, perhaps in part due to changes in land-use, but seemingly also due to hybridization with European Field Pansy, a species that seems to have coped better with modern agricultural practice. Flowers throughout the summer; petals variously blue, white, purple and yellow. Differs from European Field Pansy in having larger flowers, with sepals shorter than the petals. Flowers, measured vertically across the face are usually 10mm or more.
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Breckland Pansy Viola tricolor ssp. curtisii
(Sand Pansy). Rare in sandy soils of Breckland and the Suffolk coastal sandlings. Flowers mostly May to June; petals variously blue, white, purple and yellow. A subspecies of Wild Pansy that differs mainly in being a tufted perennial rather than an annual, and in having broader end lobes to the stipules.
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European Field Pansy Viola arvensis
Common and widespread in disturbed ground. Flowers mostly May to October; petals small, mostly white but occasionally with bluish suffusions. Petals shorter than the long, pointed sepals. Flowers, measured vertically across the face are usually 8mm or less. It seems to me to be unclear whether plants with bluish tones on the petals can be this species, or if they are all hybrids with some Wild Pansy in their ancestry.
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spreading stipules at base |
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Hybrid Field Pansy Viola x contempta
Common and widespread in disturbed ground. Flowers mostly May to October; petals small, mostly white with bluish suffusions. Petals shorter than the long, pointed sepals. It seems to me to be unclear whether plants with bluish tones on the petals can be this species, or if they are all hybrids with some Wild Pansy in their ancestry. Highly variable, but generally intermediate between both parents.
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