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

Viola blanda Willd. - Sweet White Violet

synonyms: Viola blanda var. palustriformis A. Gray; V. incognita Brainerd; V. incognita var. forbesii Brainerd; V. leconteana G. Don 

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

Distributional Range: Native Northern America EASTERN CANADA: Canada [Québec (s.w.), Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador] WESTERN CANADA: Canada [Manitoba] NORTHEASTERN U.S.A.: United States [Connecticut, Indiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, West Virginia] NORTH-CENTRAL U.S.A.: United States [Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota, Wisconsin] SOUTHEASTERN U.S.A.: United States [Alabama, Delaware, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia]

Habitat:  The most common white flowered stemless violet in eastern North America is Viola blanda. It grows in shaded damp deciduous woodlands at lower elevations, flowering at the time the deciduous trees are leafing out, or even later. Viola blanda occurs in small colonies; individual plants are interconnected by stolons 

Viola blanda is primarily an Appalachian species, found westward as far as southern Indiana. It flowers several weeks later than V. pallens from late April to May (to June at higher or colder locations). Usually it is in beech-maple or mixed deciduous forests or under hemlocks, especially in cool ravines or valley floors where acid soils from metamorphic sandstone are overlain by very moist, rich leaf litter. Summer leaves are larger, up to 8 cm long. 

References:

1. Choo, T. Y. S. et al. 2014. (2300) Proposal to conserve the name Viola blanda Willd. against Viola blanda Salisb. (Violaceae). Taxon 63:690-691.

2. Gleason, H. A. & A. Cronquist. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada, ed. 2

3. Hinds, H. R. 2000. Flora of New Brunswick, ed. 2.

4. Huxley, A., ed. 1992. The new Royal Horticultural Society dictionary of gardening

5. Liberty Hyde Bailey Hortorium. 1976. Hortus third.

6. Magee, D. W. & H. E. Ahles. 1999. Flora of the Northeast. A manual of the vascular flora of New England and adjacent New York.

7. McKinney, L. E. & N. H. Russell. 2002. Violaceae of the southeastern United States. Castanea 67:375.