Sweet white violet

Description

Viola blanda, commonly called the sweet white violet, is a flowering perennial plant in the Violet family (Violaceae). It is native to parts of south-eastern and south-central Canada and the eastern, and north-central, United States. Its natural habitat is in cool, mesic forests. The sweet white violet grows from 6 to 12 inches high. They grow small white flowers in spring and early summer. The lower petals have purple veins. The upper petals are often twisted or bent backwards. The stalks are a reddish tinged. They grow 1-2 inch long heart shaped leaves with a few scattered hairs. The white violet has demonstrated a weak ability to respond to climate change by shifting its flowering time in some areas of its range. Viola is a genus of flowering plants in the violet family Violaceae. It is the largest genus in the family, containing between 525 and 600 species. Most species are found in the temperate Northern Hemisphere; however, some are also found in widely divergent areas such as Hawaii, Australasia, and the Andes. Some Viola species are perennial plants, some are annual plants, and a few are small shrubs. Many species, varieties and cultivars are grown in gardens for their ornamental flowers. In horticulture the term pansy is normally used for those multi-colored, large-flowered cultivars which are raised annually or biennially from seed and used extensively in bedding. The terms viola and violet are normally reserved for small-flowered annuals or perennials, including the wild species. Annual or perennial caulescent or acaulescent (with or without a visible plant stem above the ground) herbs, shrubs or very rarely treelets. In acaulescent taxa the foliage and flowers appear to rise from the ground. The remainder have short stems with foliage and flowers produced in the axils of the leaves (axillary). Viola typically have heart-shaped or reniform (kidney-shaped), scalloped leaves, though a number have linear or palmate leaves. The simple leaves of plants with either habit are arranged alternately; the acaulescent species produce basal rosettes. Plants always have leaves with stipules that are often leaf-like. The flowers of the vast majority of the species are strongly zygomorphic with bilateral symmetry and solitary, but occasionally form cymes. The flowers are formed from five petals; four are upswept or fan-shaped with two per side, and there is one, broad, lobed lower petal pointing downward.