Viola nephrophylla (Northern Bog Violet) - photos and description
Stemless species, leaves all basal
Heavily bearded lateral petals
Lower petal with a few hairs / slightly bearded
General: Violet without a leafy stem, and the scapes
equal to or slightly taller than the leaves. Foliage glabrous. Begins flowering in mid May.
Taxonomic
key to Saskatchewan's violets.
Flowers: Purple blue, solitary on scapes. Flowers heavily bearded and with a blunt spur. Flowers measured to 2 cm diameter, flowering scapes to 8 cm tall. Spur is blunt, 3 mm long and wide.
Leaves: Leaves basal, vary in shape from round, to kidney-shaped, to heart-shaped. Leaves have rounded teeth and a blunt apex. Leaf highlighted in photo above was 18 mm long (without petiole) and 15 mm wide.
Height: Scapes measured to 16 cm tall.
Habitat: Moist prairie meadows, moist woods, marshes, forest bogs.
Abundance: Common.
Origin: Native.
When and where photographed: The above photos were taken May 27th, on a seep along a lakeshore, wet aspen woods, about 70 km SE of Regina, SK, and June 28th, mossy, moist woods, boreal forest, 350 km north of our home in Regina, SK.