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Marsh Violet

Marsh Violet

Viola palustris

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How common: Common

Marsh Violet is a small, low-growing wild violet of wet places across northern and central Europe and parts of North America. It has pale lilac to bluish flowers in early summer and spreads across boggy ground with creeping underground stems.

Did you know?

  • Ants often carry its seeds, helping it spread.
  • Its leaves can stay green under the snow through winter.

About the species

Identification

A delicate, low plant with a few shiny, light green leaves that are nearly round and wider than long, with no pointed tip. Leaves are small in spring and become larger later. One flower grows on each thin stalk, usually slightly drooping. Flowers are about 1–1.5 cm across, pale lilac to pinkish-blue, with five parts and a small pouch-like bump at the back. Fruit is a three-part pod that splits open. Compared with other violets, its very round, blunt-tipped leaves and very wet habitat help identify it. Kukkii Suomessa touko–kesäkuussa.

Plant group

Herbaceous plants

Habitat

shore

Flowering

May–Jun

About the habitat

Likes very damp ground: wet and swampy woods, mires and bogs, marshy shores, wet meadows, and along ditches and streams. Yleinen koko Suomessa lukuun ottamatta Lappia, missä harvinainen.

Sources

Photo: Krzysztof Ziarnek, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Viola palustris kz1.jpg

Text: Pinkka: BIO-503 Suomen kasvisto ja kasvillisuus - Sisävedet: rantaniityt, CC BY 4.0 https://laji.fi/taxon/MX.38331

Text: Pinkka: Kasvitieteen retkeily Ahvenanmaalle - Nåtö ja Västerskog, CC BY 4.0 https://laji.fi/taxon/MX.38331

Text: Pinkka: Kasvien talvi - Talvivihreät luonnonkasvit, CC BY 4.0 https://laji.fi/taxon/MX.38331

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

See also