31.) VIOLACEAE - Violet family - Pages

31.) VIOLACEAE - Violet family

VIOLACEAE - Violet family

VIOLA L.

Section VIOLA

Viola odorata L. (Sweet Violet) / Woodland Frequent Widespread and locally frequent in woods, open scrub and along hedgebanks and lane-sides; coming in an array of colour forms which are described below. It is used to flavour the sweets Parma Violets and there is the curious fact that you can often only smell its fragrance for a very short period before completely losing it. It's been suggested that this is because of the presence of ionine which has the power to anaesthetize nose receptors.
var. odorata (Sweet Violet) Woodland Frequent The typical plant with deep violet flowers; found throughout the range of the species but often overtaken by var. imberbis in many areas. White (1912) gives an interesting opinion on the matter "The type violacea is very much less frequent in the vicinity of Bristol than the form alba. This has been accounted for by supposing that the blue violets have been largely dug up and transplanted into gardens, or hawked for sale in the streets...Another suggestion on this point of respective frequency is that the form alba spreads more readily and is therefore found in the greater abundance".

See Notes on White-Flowered Viola odorata L. in the Bristol District by S.M. Walters, 1944 (p. 41)

var. dumetorum (Jord.) Rouy & Foucaud Woodland Scarce With white flowers, dark purple-violet spur and hair tufts present towards the inner end of the lateral petals. Widespread but much less frequent than the other white form - var. imberbis.
var. imberbis (Leight.) Hensl. Woodland Frequent With white flowers, pinkish-purple spur (paler than var. dumetorum) and no hair tufts on the inner end of the lateral petals. The prevailing form in limestone districts. "Abundant on the limestone hills and inland Lias soil near Bristol." (Riddelsdell, 1948).
var. praecox Greg. Woodland Very Rare With very rounded almost orbicular leaves and deep purple flowers (darker than var. odorata). Very rare but possibly overlooked. First recorded at "Weston Wood: one patch on ground recently added to the garden of Fairleigh School." (Gregory, 1912) and at "Almondsbury Hill" in 1916 by E.S. Gregory (Riddelsdell, 1948). Recorded recently from Thornbury in 2020s by ?; Shepperdine in 2020s by ? [BSBI record]; on a bank of the River Trym along Trym Road, Westbury-on-Trym in 2022 by D. Peters and later that same year by the same recorder in Badock's Wood and at the Church Lane entrance to Blaise Castle Estate (probably originally planted).
var. subcarnea (Jord.) Parl. Woodland Very Rare With dusky pink flowers. "It is quite a rare form. The neighbourhood of Stanton Drew, and hedgebanks between that village and Pensford, are the only spots known to Mr. Fry and Myself where the plant is at all abundant. It grows also in hedges about Ingst, G.; in Markham Bottom (Mr. S. Irwin); and very sparingly in open woodland above Weston-in-Gordano. Mrs. Gregory reports it as being rather frequent about Banwell, Christon, Winscombe and Weston-super-Mare. Dial Hill, Clevedon; Miss Livett. Gatwicke Hall and Tickenham Hill; Miss Roper." (White, 1912). Only recently recorded from Winford in 2010s by ? and Dunkerton, North Somerset in 2020s by ? [BSBI records] though it could still be present in many of the historic localities.
var. sulfurea (Cariot) Rouy & Foucaud Woodland Extinct "Mrs. Gregory has had this under observation some years in the S.E. portion of Worlebury Wood. It has truely sulpur-coloured flowers - practically scentless - and a violet-tinted spur." (White, 1912). It differed though in "having hairy peduncules, bracts broadly ovate-ciliate; petals sulphur-coloured for two-thirds of their length, yellowish-white beyond; capsules densely pubescent." (Gregory, 1912). Also recorded at Blaise Castle Estate in 1917 by ? and Combe Down, Westbury-on-Trym in 1924 (Riddelsdell, 1948). It should be sought for.
'Lydia Groves' General A single plant of this garden cultivar was found self-seeded on a stone step on Gloucester Road in 2022 by D. Peters. It was destroyed shortly after by weedkiller.
Viola odorata x V. hirta = V. x scabra F. Braun (Sweet x Hairy Violet) Extinct Only recorded a handful of times: Bays Wood, Tickenham in 1921 by ?; Wraxall in 1921 by ?; Wrington in 1985 by ?. Though not seen since the two species often grow in the same vicinity and it's probably overlooked. Historical records: "In a wood on Almondsbury Hill; not in great quantity, but very well marked. Laneside on the limestone ridge between Alveston Common and Elberton...Rather plentiful in a portion of Worlebury Wood, near Weston-super-Mare. It was there that Mrs. Gregory first identified the plant...Rocky bank at the top of the West Hill, Wraxall. A large patch on the laneside above Limeridge Wood, on the way to Cadbury Camp; and, more sparingly, some way down Tickenham Hill. In several places on the skirt of the wood at top of Bourton Combe; and by the side of green lanes thence along the ridge of Backwell Hill" (White, 1912 [as V. permixta]).
Viola hirta L. (Hairy Violet) / Woodland Uncommon Local in open woods, hedgebanks and grassland on calcareous soils. It has declined.
var. hirta Woodland Uncommon The typical plant making up most of the records.
var. calcarea Bab. Woodland Extinct Found "in rough pasture on the limestone hills of North Somerset, and occasionally on hedgebanks and wood-borders...Bourton Combe. Brockley Combe, and plentiful on the high ground thence towards Cleeve. Hedgebanks on Tickenham Hill, and in a stony pasture hard by. On the Cadbury range, Court Hill, and Castle Hill, Clevedon; D. Fry. Worle Hill, Uphill, Bleadon and other hills within reach of Weston-super-Mare; Mrs. Gregory...Sandford Hill. Hampton Down, near Bath; Miss Peck." (White, 1912 [as V. calcarea]). Last recorded at Kings Wood and Urchin Wood in 1984 by R. FitzGerald though it has probably just been overlooked.
Viola riviniana Rchb. (Common Dog-violet) / Woodland Frequent Common and widespread in woods, hedgebanks and occasionally rough pastures. Also sometimes found as a plant of urban streets and gate entrances.
var. riviniana Woodland Frequent The typical plant with the same range and distribution as the species.
var. minor (Murb. ex Greg.) Valentine Grassland Extinct A dwarfed plant of exposed places. It is mentioned by Gregory (1912) to occur near Bath and Clevedon and should be looked for.
var. rosea (Common Dog-violet) General Very Rare A pink variety which is occasionally grown in gardens. A single self-seeded plant was found growing in St. Bonaventure's car park, on the edge of Friary Rd, Bishopston, Bristol in 2024 by D. Peters.
var. Purpurea group (Common Dog-violet) General Very Rare A garden variety with purple-suffused foliage and deeper violet flowers. Found as a garden escape on two occasions in Bishopston, Bristol by D. Peters: on Thornleigh Avenue in 2024 and Maple Road in 2025.
Viola riviniana x V. reichenbachiana = V. x bavarica Schrank (Common x Early Dog-violet) /- Woodland Rare Recorded sparsely in Woods wherever the two species occur displaying a range of intermediates. It is probably overlooked.
Viola riviniana x V. canina = V. x intersita Beck (Common x Heath Dog-violet) 1914 - [ours is with V. canina ssp. canina] Grassland Extinct Recorded at "Bath; Miss C.L. Peck. Worle Hill, Weston-super-Mare." (Gregory, 1912). Also recorded on a railway bank at Yate Lower Common in 1916 by ? and again in 1948 by C.I. Sandwith.

[Additionally a 1930s BSBI record from the north-east of the Region. Where is the 1914 record?].

Ian Green. Comments say "Worle Hill, before 1914. Recorded as district 4 in flora of 1981, when it should be district 9. Recorder may not be recorder but original source data enterer. Comments are as provided to BRERC"

Viola riviniana x V. lactea (Common x Pale Dog-violet) - Glos. Fl. Grassland Extinct Recorded on a railway bank at Yate Lower Common in 1917 and seen again in 1943 by S.M. Walters where it is described as "more abundant than the lactea parent" (Riddelsdell, 1948) and a specimen was collected in 1948 by C.I. & N.Y. Sandwith.

ST703844 Railway Bank, Yate Lower Common
ST702864 Lower Common, Yate
ST705864 Railway bank, Yate Lower Common beginning to wonder if 3 is a duplicate of 1 (different datasets) as the date is the same.
16/05/1948
11/05/1920
16/05/1948

[1943, S. M. Walters, Procs. B.N.S., 1943 (1944), 471." and collected by the Sandwith's in 1948 (Herbaria United).]

Viola reichenbachiana Jord. ex Boreau (Early Dog-violet) / Woodland Frequent Our most common violet; found in woods and hedgebanks (especially on calcareous soils) and sometimes occurring in urban areas around shaded pavements and gate entrances.
Viola reichenbachiana x V. canina = V. x mixta A. Kern. (Early x Heath Dog-violet) 1912 - [ours is with V. canina ssp. canina] Woodland Extinct Historically recorded at Banwell Wood, North Somerset in April 1904 by E.S. Gregory. White (1912) states it under V. silvestris [V. reichenbachiana] - "Mrs Gregory got also a hybrid with canina at Banwell Wood", though, the record is mentioned with caution by Gregory (1912) and placed it "as an intermediate between the Silvaticae and Caninae groups", leaving it under the silvatica aggregate (which includes: riviniana and reichenbachiana). The plant had "Perfectly white flowers with a thick greenish-yellow spur. Has much the habit of V. riviniana, but the central rosette has one flower". The two parent species have very different habitat requirements and rarely ever grow together.
Viola canina L. ssp. canina (Heath Dog-violet) Grassland Very Rare A plant traditionally associated with open hillsides, heaths and commons; always rare in our region but it has disappeared from many of its historical sites and has only been recorded on five occasions since the turn of the century: Yate in 2000 by ?; Clifton Down in 2001 by ?; near North Stoke, Bath in 2002 by ?; Tucking Mill, Bath in 2007 by ?; and last seen at Tyntesfield in 2011 by P. Millman?. Multiple variants were named in the past. Many of our plants were placed with var. ericetorum - a "low-growing, floriferous plant, with many prostrate or ascending stems, found on heaths and hilly ground." (Marshall, 1914). A white form of it was found on Walton Hill, Clevedon (White, 1912) and on a hillside near Clevedon by Miss Barstow (Marshall, 1914) [possibly the same locality], var. macrantha - a robust form with large flowers, used to occur in "Sandy fields between Uphill and Weston Sanatorium; now much diminished by golfing." (White, 1912), var. calcarea - "A dwarf floriferous plant, 2-3 cm in height, with large flowers of true canina blue, having yellow spurs...Dry limestone hills, Weston-s.-Mare." (Gregory, 1912). "Mrs. Gregory has it from Worle Hill and one or two other similar localities." (White, 1912), and var. lanceolata - "more diffuse in habit and...having longer narrower leaves" (Gregory, 1912) - "In a poor, clayey field by the Midland Railway, a mile east of Rangeworthy - an enclosed portion of Yate Lower Common. The longer, narrower, somewhat truncate leaves on long petioles, sufficiently separate this plant from type." (White, 1912). None of these forms are recognised today but the last was later worked out to actually be a hybrid with V. lactea (see the next account).
Viola canina x V. lactea (Heath x Pale Dog-violet) Grassland Extinct This is the plant originally referred to by White (1912) as V. canina var. lanceolata. As extracted from Journ. Bot., 1917 (p. 227): "Mrs. Gregory, while assenting to the name, saw that the plant differed from Oxfordshire specimens of the variety; and she owned in correspondence that had V. lactea been known in the vicinity she would have strongly suspected our plant to be, preferably, a hybrid - canina x lactea...It seems now fairly certain that the so-called lanceolata is indeed the hybrid suggested by Mrs. Gregory".
Viola lactea Sm. (Pale Dog-violet) 1944 Grassland Extinct Formerly occurred at Yate Lower Common where it was discovered in 1917 by J.W. White and E.S. Gregory "we searched the locality repeatedly for V. lactea, and were at length rewarded by finding two small plants of it at a short distance. Later, Miss Roper detected it in very small quantity on another part of the Common, and on June 4, in an enclosure nearly a mile from the original station, I was glad to see amongst coarse, heathy herbage a number of tufts (of course past flowering) over a space of 50 or 60 yards." Journ. Bot., 1917 (p. 227). Last seen in 1944 by S.M. Walters, "a dozen plants." (Riddelsdell, 1948). Much of the land in the area is now arable or improved pasture.
Viola palustris L. ssp. palustris (Marsh Violet) Wetland Extinct A plant of wet boggy acidic soils; very illusively recorded: historically it occurred "in several boggy hollows on the flank of Blackdown over Burrington Combe [on the edge of the region]." (White, 1912); Walton Moor in 1990 by A.G. Smith (unconfirmed); and last sighted near Yatton in 2004 by ? [old BSBI records also from ST46 - possibly the same site?].

[Check all 2012 records - clearly something fishy!]

Section MELANIUM DC. ex Ging.

Viola cornuta x V. x wittrockiana = V. x williamsii (Bedding Viola) General Scarce Much grown in planters and hanging baskets and sometimes escapes. Some records of V. x wittrockiana may belong here.
Viola lutea Huds. (Mountain Pansy) Grassland Extinct Recorded on the southern edge of the region near Burrington in 1990s by ? [BSBI record].

[Not sure if it is within the region]

Viola lutea x L. tricolor (Mountain x Wild Pansy) - 1 record Grassland Extinct Recorded near Clevedon in 2003 by ?.

[Needs checking, more likely to be escaped Bedding Viola]

Viola tricolor L. ssp. tricolor (Wild Pansy) - General Rare Rare and scattered on cultivated and disturbed land. Many records are probably mistakes for escaped Bedding Viola. Love in Idleness is a local Gloucestershire name (Riddelsdell, 1948).
Viola tricolor x V. arvensis = V. x contempta Jord. (Wild x Field Pansy) 1948 General Extinct Recorded from ST66 in 1930s by ? and ST78 in 1990s by ? [BSBI records].
Viola lutea (ssp. sudetica) x V. tricolor x V. altaica = V. x wittrockiana Gams ex Kappert (Garden Pansy) / General Scarce Much grown for bedding and in hanging baskets and sometimes escapes onto pavements and other disturbed places.
Viola arvensis (ssp. arvensis) Murray (Field Pansy) / General Uncommon A once common plant of cornfields; particularly concentrated to the north-east of the region on the Cotswold plateau but is now notably rarer than it used to be thanks to changes in farming practices. It has a long 'seed-bank' and occasionally it pops up on other disturbed ground such as after roadworks.

List:

Viola odorata L. (Sweet Violet) / Woodland
Viola odorata L. var. odorata (Sweet Violet)
Viola odorata L. var. dumetorum (Jord.) Rouy & Foucaud (Sweet Violet)
Viola odorata L. var. imberbis (Leight.) Hensl. (Sweet Violet)
Viola odorata L. var. praecox Greg. (Sweet Violet)
Viola odorata L. var. subcarnea (Jord.) Parl. (Sweet Violet)
Viola odorata L. var. sulfurea (Cariot) Rouy & Foucaud (Sweet Violet)
Viola odorata L. 'Lydia Groves' (Sweet Violet 'Lydia Groves')
Viola odorata x V. hirta = V. x scabra F. Braun (Sweet x Hairy Violet)
Viola hirta L. (var. hirta) (Hairy Violet) / Woodland
Viola hirta L. var. calcarea Bab. (Hairy Violet)
Viola riviniana Rchb. (ssp. riviniana / var. riviniana (best treated) - Stace) (Common Dog-violet) / Woodland
Viola riviniana Rchb. var. minor (Murb. ex Greg.) Valentine (Common Dog-violet)
Viola riviniana Rchb. var. rosea (Common Dog-violet)
Viola riviniana Rchb. var. Purpurea group (Common Dog-violet)
Viola riviniana x V. reichenbachiana = V. x bavarica Schrank (Common x Early Dog-violet) /- Woodland
Viola riviniana x V. canina = V. x intersita Beck (Stace, NBN) (Common x Heath Dog-violet) 1914 - ours is with V. canina ssp. canina Grassland
Viola riviniana x V. lactea (Common x Pale Dog-violet) - Glos. Fl., Yate Lower Common - "more abundant than the lactea parent, 1943, S. M. Walters, Procs. B.N.S., 1943 (1944), 471." and collected by the Sandwith's in 1948 Herbaria United
Viola reichenbachiana Jord. ex Boreau (Early Dog-violet) / Woodland
Viola reichenbachiana x V. canina = V. x mixta A. Kern. (Stace, NBN) (Early x Heath Dog-violet) 1912 - ours is with V. canina ssp. canina Woodland
Viola canina L. ssp. canina (Heath Dog-violet / Heath Violet) Grassland
Viola lactea Sm. (Pale Dog-violet) 1944 Grassland
Viola palustris L. ssp. palustris (Marsh Violet) Wetland
Viola cornuta x V. x wittrockiana (V. tricolor x V. arvensis x V. altaica - Stace / V. altaica × V. lutea subsp. sudetica × V. tricolor. - Kew) = V. x williamsii (Bedding Viola)
Viola lutea Huds. (Mountain Pansy) - 1 BSBI record
Viola lutea x L. tricolor (Mountain x Wild Pansy) - 1 record [needs checking, more likely to be escaped Bedding Viola]
Viola tricolor L. ssp. tricolor (Wild Pansy) - General
Viola tricolor x V. arvensis = V. x contempta Jord. (Stace, NBN) (Wild x Field Pansy) 1948 General
Viola tricolor x V. arvensis x ? V. altaica = V. x wittrockiana Gams ex Kappert (Stace) Viola lutea x V. tricolor x V. altaica = V. x wittrockiana Gams ex Kappert (NBN) (Garden Pansy) / General
Viola arvensis Murray (Field Pansy) / General

Species to add:

Viola odorata L. var. odorata (Sweet Violet)
Viola odorata L. var. dumetorum (Jord.) Rouy & Foucaud (Sweet Violet)
Viola odorata L. var. imberbis (Leight.) Hensl. (Sweet Violet)
Viola odorata L. var. praecox Greg. (Sweet Violet)
Viola odorata L. var. subcarnea (Jord.) Parl. (Sweet Violet)
Viola odorata L. var. sulfurea (Cariot) Rouy & Foucaud (Sweet Violet)
Viola odorata L. 'Lydia Groves' (Sweet Violet 'Lydia Groves')
Viola odorata x V. hirta = V. x scabra F. Braun (Sweet x Hairy Violet)
Viola hirta L. var. calcarea Bab. (Hairy Violet)
Viola riviniana Rchb. var. minor (Murb. ex Greg.) Valentine (Common Dog-violet)
Viola riviniana Rchb. var. rosea (Common Dog-violet)
Viola riviniana Rchb. var. Purpurea group (Common Dog-violet)
Viola riviniana x V. lactea (Common x Pale Dog-violet) - Glos. Fl., Yate Lower Common - "more abundant than the lactea parent, 1943, S. M. Walters, Procs. B.N.S., 1943 (1944), 471." and collected by the Sandwith's in 1948 Herbaria United
Viola canina x V. lactea (Heath x Pale Dog-violet) - Glos. Fl.
Viola cornuta x V. x wittrockiana (V. tricolor x V. arvensis x V. altaica - Stace / V. altaica × V. lutea subsp. sudetica × V. tricolor. - Kew) = V. x williamsii (Bedding Viola)
Viola lutea Huds. (Mountain Pansy) - 1 BSBI record
Viola lutea x L. tricolor (Mountain x Wild Pansy) - 1 record [needs checking, more likely to be escaped Bedding Viola]