kingdom Plantae - plants »  divisio Magnoliophyta - flowering plants »  class Rosopsida - eudicots » order Malpighiales »  family Violaceae »  tribus Violeae > genus Viola > Viola sect. Plagiostigma Godr.  > Viola subsect. Adnatae W. Becker 

Viola selkirkii Pursh ex Goldie - Selkirk's Violet

| Bio Lib |  GRIN | eFlora of China | eFlora North America |Botanikim |

Common Name:  Great-spurred or long-spurred or Selkirk’s violet, violette de Selkirk Great-spurred or long-spurred or Selkirk’s violet, violette de Selkirk ; 深山堇菜 shen shan jin cai ; miyama-sumire [ミヤマスミレ, 深山菫 (meaning: high mountains viola)] 

Synon.: Viola selkirkii var. albiflora Nakai; V. selkirkii var. angustistipulata W. Becker; V. selkirkii var.brevicalcarata W. Becker; V. selkirkii var. subbarbata W. Becker; V. selkirkii var. variegata Nakai. ; Viola borealis Weinm.; Viola carnosula W. Becker; Viola crassicornis W. Becker & Hultén; Viola imberbis Ledeb.; Viola kamtschatica Ging.; Viola umbrosa Fr.

Description: Herbs perennial, acaulescent and without stolon, 5-16 cm tall. Rhizome cordlike, occasionally separated, producing vegetative clones. Leaves basal, usually numerous, rosulate; stipules greenish, ca. 1/2 adnate to petiole, free part lanceolate, margin remotely glandular denticulate, base narrowly and deeply cordate, margin obtusely dentate, apex ± acute or obtuse; petiole 2-7 cm, to 13 cm in fruit, narrowly winged, sparsely white puberulous or glabrous; leaf blade ovate-cordate or slightly reniform, 1-5 × 1-3.5 cm at anthesis, ca. 6 × 4 cm at fruiting, thinly papery, strigose on the upper surface, glabrous or occasionally pubescent below; blades with narrow, deep sinus and lobes touching or slightly overlapping. Flowers long pedicellate, pedicels 4-7 cm, slightly or not exceeding leaves, glabrous, usually 2-bracteolate at middle; bracteoles linear, 5-7 mm, margin remotely denticulate. Sepals ovate-lanceolate, 6-7 mm, margin narrowly membranous, 3-veined, apex acute, basal auricles oblong, ca. 2 mm, apex irregularly emarginate and sparsely ciliate. Petals light blue, purple or white, obovate, all beardless, anterior one 1.5-2 cm (spur included); spur 5-7 mm, 2-3 mm in diam., apex rounded, straight or slightly curved upward. Ovary glabrous; styles clavate, base slightly geniculate forward, conspicuously thickened in upper part; stigmas flat at top, narrowly margined on lateral sides, shortly beaked in front, beak with an upward stigma hole at tip. Capsule ellipsoid, small, 6-8 mm, glabrous, apex obtuse. Seeds numerous, brownish, ovoid-globose, ca. 2 mm, ca. 1.1 mm in diam. Fl. Apr-May, fr. Jun-Sep. 2n = 12, 24. 

Distributional Range:  

• Asia-Temperate 

  • SIBERIA: Russian Federation-Eastern Siberia, [Eastern Siberia] Russian Federation-Western Siberia [Western Siberia]

  • MONGOLIA: Mongolia

  • RUSSIAN FAR EAST: Russian Federation-Far East [Far East]

  • CHINA: China [Anhui Sheng, Zhejiang Sheng, Heilongjiang Sheng, Hubei Sheng, Gansu Sheng, Jiangxi Sheng, Jiangsu Sheng, Jilin Sheng, Liaoning Sheng, Shandong Sheng, Shaanxi Sheng, Sichuan Sheng, Nei Mongol Zizhiqu]

  • EASTERN ASIA: Japan, [Hokkaidô, Honshu (n. & c.), Shikoku] Korea

• Europe 

  • NORTHERN EUROPE: Finland, Norway, Sweden

  • EASTERN EUROPE: Russian Federation-European part [European part]

• Northern America 

  • SUBARCTIC AMERICA: Canada, [Yukon] Greenland, United States [Alaska (s.e.)]

  • EASTERN CANADA: Canada [Québec, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador]

  • WESTERN CANADA: Canada [Saskatchewan, Alberta, Manitoba, British Columbia]

  • NORTHEASTERN U.S.A.: United States [Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont]

  • NORTH-CENTRAL U.S.A.: United States [Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wisconsin]

Habitat: Viola selkirkii is found in the shade of cool boreal mountain forests. It grows in rich moist soils, frequently on rotting logs, in moss on limestone rocks and ledges or beside cool creeks. Its prefered habitat is evergreen and hardwood forests, particularly under hemlocks, pine, spruce and alders.  400-1500 m. 

Notes: 

This species is the sole North American representative of a predominantly Eurasian group of approximately two dozen species, all characterized by distinctly adnate stipules at the base of the petiole. This feature separates Viola selkirkii from all other blue-flowered stemless violets in North America, with the exception of Viola pedata, but though the latter also has adnate stipules, it is visually and taxonomically distinct in many other ways from all other violets. Viola selkirkii is closer to the stoloniferousPalustres group that have similar style heads and similarly colored flowers.

V.selkirkii is a circumpolar species that probably originated in the Old World, and may have spread to North America across the Atlantic from southwest Greenland or from eastern Asia. In spite of its wide range, it does not separate into geological races. Although this species is reported as being rare, this may be partly because it flowers before most observers are in the field.

References:

1. see GRIN