Viola blanda (Large-leaved Wood Violet) - photos and description
15 cm ruler
General: Small white-flowered violet having scapes
with a soft pubescence. All stems from a single rootstalk, there are no
leafy stems.
Taxonomic
key to Saskatchewan's violets.
Flowers: Flowers single on peduncles, are lightly bearded on side petals, the lower petal with no hairs. We measured the flowers to be 10 - 13 mm in diameter, the spur petal 1 cm long. Spur is blunt and short measured at 4 mm long and 2 mm wide.
Leaves: Leaves are basal, toothed and orbicular to cordate, apex usually pointed. Leaves can grow rather large for such a small plant, to 4 cm long, 3.5 cm wide. Soft pubescence petioles and undersides of leaves. Top of leaves hairless.
Height: We measured scapes to 7 cm tall, leaves to 9 cm tall.
Habitat: Moist woodlands on the eastern fringe of the province.
Abundance: A plant more common in central Canada, this plant is very rare in Saskatchewan, ranked as an S2 (as of 2021) by the Saskatchewan Conservation Data Centre.
Origin: Native.
When and where photographed: Above photos taken June 4th, hillsides in heavy forest, Porcupine Hills, about 400 km northeast of our home in Regina, SK.