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Field Pansy

Field Pansy

Viola arvensis

Identify the Field Pansy from a photo and log your finds with Florapass.

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How common: Very common

Alien species

Field pansy is a small annual violet of open, disturbed places. It has slender branching stems with pale cream to yellowish flowers and finely toothed leaves. You often see it in fields, gardens and waste ground across much of Europe and other temperate regions.

Did you know?

  • Ants help spread its seeds, which carry a tiny food body that attracts them.
  • Its petals are often shorter than the green outer parts, so the flowers look narrow and pale compared to many pansies.

About the species

Identification

An annual, 10–40 cm tall, with upright to leaning, usually branched stems. Leaves are oval to narrow with small teeth; at the base of each leaf are large, deeply cut, leaf-like flaps. Single small flowers (about 1–1.5 cm) are creamy white to pale yellow or faintly lilac. The green outer parts often stick out beyond the petals, and the lowest petal has a short pouch at the back. Fruit is a small three-part pod that splits to release shiny brown seeds. Compared with wild pansy, flowers are paler and smaller, and the petals are shorter than the green outer parts. Flowers in Finland from May to September.

Plant group

Herbaceous plants

Habitat

yards and roadsides

Flowering

May–Sep

About the habitat

Grows on arable fields, garden beds, around houses, roadsides, waste ground, meadows and rocky or sandy places; thrives in disturbed, open, sunny spots. Common almost throughout Finland; rare in Lapland and absent from the far north of Lapland.

Sources

Photo: GerritR, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Stiefmütterchen am Rand eines Ackers bei Limburg an der Lahn II.jpg

Text: Pinkka: Verso- ja leviäintunnistus - Kaikki leviäimet, CC BY 4.0 https://laji.fi/taxon/MX.38338

Text: Pinkka: Verso- ja leviäintunnistus - Kaikki versot, CC BY 4.0 https://laji.fi/taxon/MX.38338

Text: Pinkka: Laaja maatalouslajintuntemus 4 op - Koppisiemeniset, CC BY 4.0 https://laji.fi/taxon/MX.38338

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

See also