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Heath Dog-Violet

Heath Dog-Violet

Viola canina

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How common: Common

Heath Dog-Violet is a delicate, blue-flowered wild violet. It grows in open, fairly dry places such as heaths, meadows, roadsides and light woods. The species is widespread in Europe and often seen on sunny or lightly shaded slopes.

Did you know?

  • It readily forms hybrids with other violets, especially Common Dog-violet.
  • Caterpillars of several fritillary butterflies feed on this plant.

About the species

Identification

Slender perennial 8–40 cm. Stems leaning to upright, leafy, without a circle of leaves at the base. Leaves oval to narrow heart-shaped, mostly smooth and slightly shiny, with shallow teeth and a shallow notch at the base; small narrow side pieces sit at each leaf base. Flowers one per leaf joint, slightly nodding; five petals, blue with a white center (rarely all white). The lowest petal has a thin, pale greenish-white pouch at the back. Fruit is a small pod that splits into three. Looks like Common Dog-violet, but this one lacks the basal leaf circle, has narrower, shinier leaves and a longer, paler, slimmer pouch. In Finland it flowers from May to July: the smaller subspecies in May–June, the larger in June–July.

Plant group

Herbaceous plants

Habitat

meadow

Flowering

May–Jul

About the habitat

Dry to moderately dry, open sites: sunny or lightly shaded slopes, grasslands, heaths, roadsides, clearings and light forests. Common in almost all of Finland; rare in northernmost Lapland.

Sources

Photo: Robert Flogaus-Faust, CC BY 4.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Viola canina RF.jpg

Text: Pinkka: Kasvitieteen retkeily Ahvenanmaalle - Nåtön biologinen asema, CC BY 4.0 https://laji.fi/taxon/MX.38323

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

See also