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Dame's-Violet

Dame's-Violet

Hesperis matronalis

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How common: Common

Alien species

Dame's-Violet is a sweet-scented herb in the mustard family, grown as an ornamental and often found naturalized across many temperate regions. It is typically seen in and around gardens, woodland edges, hedgerows, and other disturbed places. The showy flowers appear from late spring into summer and are especially fragrant in the evening.

Did you know?

  • The genus name Hesperis refers to evening, highlighting the flower’s strongest scent at dusk.
  • Unlike many mustards, Dame's-Violet often has purple or pink blooms rather than yellow.

About the species

Identification

An upright, usually unbranched, slightly rough-haired herb with alternate leaves; basal leaves are ovate and toothed, upper leaves more lance-shaped with sparse teeth. Flowers are borne in loose racemes, each with four petals that are lilac to purple or sometimes white, and notably fragrant in the evening. After flowering, it produces long, slender, cylindrical seedpods (siliques). A useful distinction from phlox-like garden flowers is the four-petaled blooms (phlox has five) and the presence of long siliques after bloom.

Plant group

Herbaceous plants

Habitat

herb-rich forest, yards and roadsides

Flowering

Jun–Aug

About the habitat

Grows in gardens, parks, hedgerows, woodland margins, and other disturbed or semi-natural places such as roadsides and waste ground. It tolerates sun to light shade and commonly establishes on moderately fertile, well-drained soils.

Sources

Photo: Hugo Hulsberg, CC0 1.0 https://www.gbif.org/occurrence/6178519474

Text: Wikipedia (Finnish), CC BY-SA 4.0 https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarhaillakko

See also