Viola pedatifida (Crowfoot Violet) - photos and description
\
Looking
straight down on plant
General: Violet with leafless flowering stems, the
basal leaves having blades deeply cleft.
Taxonomic
key to Saskatchewan's violets.
Flowers: Flowers solitary, on leafless stalks, are purple-blue with a white throat, lateral petals heavily bearded. Flower measured to 18 mm diameter. Spurs measured to 5 mm long.
Leaves: Leaves all basal and cleft almost to their base, each segment further cleft into 2 to 4 lobes. Leaves with minute hairs on margins and bottom, top of leaves are glabrous. Petioles with short hairs near the leaf blade.
Height: We measured leaves and scapes to 14 cm tall.
Habitat: Dry, hilly prairie and exposed banks.
Abundance: Rare, ranked as an S3 (as of 2021) by the Saskatchewan Conservation Data Centre. We've only seen them in two locations in Saskatchewan.
Origin: Native.
When and where photographed: Photographed May 27th, north east swale, Saskatoon, and, June 13th, on prairie on the south slopes of the Moose Mountains, about 200 km southeast of our home in Regina, SK.