vkingdom Plantae - plants »  divisio Magnoliophyta - flowering plants »  class Rosopsida - eudicots » order Malpighiales »  family Violaceae »  tribus Violeae > genus Viola > section Viola sect. Andinium W. Becker 

section Viola sect. Andinium W. Becker 

Viola abbreviata J.M. Watson & A.R. Flores, sp. nov. 

Distributional Range: Native Southern America : ARGENTINA. Neuquén Province, Chos Malal Department, Parque Provincial El Tromen, Cerro Wayle 

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Distribution  — Distribution: As presently known Viola abbreviata is a disjunct Argentinian endemic with three adjacent locations in the Chos Malal Department of northern Neuquén Province separated from one another by no more than 20 km, and a further three remote sites ca. 300 km to the north, one of them recently discovered. All three of the latter are situated in northern Malargüe Department of central Mendoza Province, not far from the border with Chile. The maximum distance between any of these is approximately 40 km 

Overall environment and habitats - V. abbreviata exhibits a considerably wide range of elevational tolerance, from ca. 2100 m at its most southern limit to 3900 m at the northernmost extension. Basic habitats are as an element of the Andean steppe and upper Andean floras, always in clearings among relatively dispersed low to dwarf vegetation, or in isolation, with minimal or no competition, as typifies these sempervoid violas. It apparently favours level or fairly level sites and soils of volcanic origin, usually surfaced with rock rubble. When the plant grows up through an open, airy layer of large fragments, the caudex tends to be long with a covering of reduced, live foliage. We were informed that on Volcán Tromen the species grows on its own at the upper limit of flowering plants. A similar lone pioneering life-style may be suspected for the highest recorded elevations at the end of the Río Atuel valley by the Andean watershed in Malargúe Department, Mendoza province, and possibly some of the habitats slightly lower down there. These maxima are in the region of 3700-3900 m. On the approach to the Paso de las Damas, also in Malargüe, V. abbreviata was found in open spaces between continuous bunch-grass steppe on flat terrain at a lower register of 2600 m, including directly beside the vehicle track 

References:

1. Watson, J.M. & Flores, A.R. (2019) The expanding kingdom of an Incredible Shrinking Violet (give or take a mm): a new diminutive-flowered rosulate Viola (section Andinium) from Argentina. IRG 110: 2- 42.