kingdom Plantae - plants »  divisio Magnoliophyta - flowering plants »  class Rosopsida - eudicots » order Malpighiales »  family Violaceae »  tribus Violeae > genus Viola > Viola sect. Melanium  Ging. 

Viola dirimliensis Blaxland

BioLib

Description: Very small annual plant, at flowering 1.5–4 cm high. Taproot – upper part dark purple, lower part colourless and branching. Stem very short, dark purple, branching, erect or ascending, with scattered retrorse hairs. Leaves cauline, ovate to lanceolate, entire or almost entire, tip obtuse to acuminate, base attenuate, long-decurrent on the petiole, with longish, retrorse hairs on the margin. Lamina upper surface hirsute especially on purple midrib, lower surface glabrous, purplish, with purple veins, 3–14 mm long 1.5–5.0 mm wide. Stipules entire, undivided, linear to gradually tapered, much smaller and shorter than the leaf, hirsute, with cilia around margin, 0.5– 7.0 mm long, up to 0.5 mm wide. Peduncles purple, almost glabrous, but with few scattered hairs at base, 1.0–3.0 cm long, longer than the leaves. Bracteoles distinct, at the upper quarter of the peduncle, purple, translucent, glabrous, adpressed to the peduncle, length 1.0 mm. Flowers small, up to 7.5 x 7.5 mm, petals golden-yellow. Sepals glabrous, with a prominent mid-vein, parallel sides and acute tip, length 3.0 mm. Appendices green, glabrous, acute, undivided, extrorse, almost equal in length, 1 mm long. Petals unequal in size, top petals largest, obovate, 0.45 mm long x 0.35 mm wide; lateral petals ovate, pointing upwards, 3.5 mm long x 2.5 mm wide, with hairs on the inside yellow, straight or clavate, sometimes very dense; lowest petal very short, very small, concave, 2.3 x 2.3 mm, tip emarginate, with a few, very short, black-purple lines. Spur yellow with purple spots, small, flattened, glabrous, end rounded and turned upwards, longer than sepal appendices, 1.5 mm long. Ovary and capsule green, glabrous. Seeds 1.8 mm long, brown, with a small colourless elaiosome.   Endemic

Distributional Range:Native SOUTEASTERN EUROPE: Turkey. [South-west Anatolia, West of Antalya, Mu la vilayet. East side of Dermil Pass (Dirimli Geçidi) on road 15-55, growing on a bare hillside of serpentinite rocks,] 

Habitat: V. dirimliensis grows on serpentinite rocks, at an altitude of  1500 –1690 m,

References:

• KIM BLAXLAND A new species of Viola (Violaceae) from south-west Turkey Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society , 2004,145, 505–509.