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

Viola sikkimensis W. Becker

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Common names: 锡金堇菜 xi jin jin cai 

Synon.: Viola hookeri Thomson & W. Becker (1916), not Franchet (1886). 

Description: Herbs perennial, acaulescent. Rhizome short, 2-2.5 cm, stout, 4-7 mm in diam., densely noded, often with brown remains of stipules. Stolon to more than 10 cm; internodes longer, producing rootlets at nodes. Leaves basal; stipules brown, lanceolate, 1-1.3 cm, margin long fimbriate-dentate; petiole 3-10 cm, glabrous; leaf blade abaxially gray-green, adaxially deep green and nitid, broadly ovate or suborbicular, 1.5-5 × 1.5-4 cm, both surfaces glabrous or sparsely puberulous, base deeply cordate, margin densely and shallowly crenate, apex obtuse. Flowers white or purplish; pedicels exceeding leaves, glabrous, 2-bracteolate above middle; bracteoles subopposite, linear, margin remotely denticulate. Sepals narrowly lanceolate, 5-6 mm, glabrous, 3-veined, basal auricles rounded or remotely dentate at apex. Petals oblong-obovate, 1-1.2 cm × 4-4.5 mm, lateral ones glabrous, anterior one purple veined, shorter, 1-1.2 cm (spur included); spur ca. 2 mm, ca. 2.5 mm in diam., slightly enlarged; spur of 2 anterior stamens angular, slightly longer than anthers, apex obtuse. Ovary conic, glabrous; styles clavate, gradually thickened upward; stigmas flat at apices, broadly margined on lateral sides and abaxially, shortly beaked at apex, beak straight. Capsule ovoid-orbicular. Fl. Apr-May, fr. May-Jun. 

Distributional Range: Native Asia-Temperate CHINA: China [Yunnan Sheng, Xizang Zizhiqu] Asia-Tropical INDIAN SUBCONTINENT: India, [Sikkim, Meghalaya, Nagaland, West Bengal, Arunachal Pradesh] Nepal INDO-CHINA: Myanmar

Habitat:  Mountain forests, forest margins, streamsides, riversides; 1500-2500 m. 

References: 

1. Chinese Academy of Sciences. 1959-. Flora reipublicae popularis sinicae.

2. Hara, H. et al. 1978-1982. An enumeration of the flowering plants of Nepal.

3. Sharma, B. D. et al., eds. 1993-. Flora of India.