Common Name: VIOLET FAMILY
Habit: Annual, perennial herb, [small shrub, tree, vine], from caudices, taproots, rhizomes, or stolons; hairs 0 or simple. Stem: 0 or prostrate to erect. Leaf: basal, cauline, or both, alternate, [opposite], simple to compound, petioled; stipules generally small; blade linear to round, entire to toothed or lobed. Inflorescence: flowers 1 [raceme], axillary or scapose; peduncle bractlets 2, generally alternate. Flower: bisexual, bilateral [radial]; sepals 5, free, basal lobes present [0], generally not prominent; petals 5, free, lowest often largest, base +- elongated into a spur; stamens 5, alternate petals, filaments short, wide, with large in-pointing hairs, lowest 2 anthers with basal nectaries extending into petal spur; ovary superior, chamber 1, placentas parietal, 3, ovules [1] generally many, style 1, often enlarged distally, stigma often oblique or hooked, hairy or not. Fruit: capsule [berry], 3-valved, loculicidal, explosively dehiscent or not. Seed: generally with outgrowth, attractive to ants.
Genera In Family: 23 genera, 830 species: worldwide, generally temperate, tropics (especially higher elevations). Note: Lengths of lowest petal including spur.
eFlora Treatment Author: R. John Little
Scientific Editor: Thomas J. Rosatti.

Common Name: VIOLET
Leaf: generally deciduous. Flower: sepals +- equal, entire; petals unequal, lowest generally largest, with spur generally < 3 [20] mm, lateral 2 equal, generally spreading, upper 2 equal, erect or reflexed, overlapped or not, lateral 2 generally, others sometimes with beard of variously shaped hairs basally; cleistogamous flowers generally present, petals 0. Fruit: ovoid to oblong, hairy or not. Seed: 8--75.
Species In Genus: +- 500 species: temperate, worldwide, Hawaii, Andes. Etymology: (Latin: classical name) Note: Important orns including Viola odorata, Viola tricolor L. (Johnny-jump-up, wild pansy), Viola ×wittrockiana Gams (garden pansy).
Unabridged Reference: Baker, M.S. 1949a. Studies in western violets. IV. Leafl. West. Bot. 5: 141--147; Baker, M.S. 1949b. Studies in western violets. VI; Madroño 10: 110--128; Baker, M.S. 1957. Brittonia 9: 217--230; Ballard, H.E. 1992. Systematics of Viola Section Viola in North Am north of Mexico. M.S. thesis, Central Michigan University, Mt. Pleasant, Michigan; Ballard, H.E. 1994. Violets of Michigan. Michigan Botanist 33: 131--199; Davidse, G. 1976. A study of some Intermountain violets (Viola Sect. Chamaemelanium). Madroño 23: 274--283; Fabijan et al. 1987. The taxonomy of the Viola nuttallii complex. Can. J. Bot. 65: 2562--2580; Gil-ad, N.L. 1995. Systematics and evolution of Viola L. subsection Boreali-Americanae (W. Becker) Brizicky. Ph.D. dissertation, Univ of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan; Gil-ad, N.L. 1997. Systematics of Viola subsection Boreali-Americanae. Boissiera 53: 1--130; Gil-ad, N.L. 1998. The micromorphologies of seed coats and petal trichomes of the taxa of Viola subsect. Boreali-Americanae (Violaceae) and their utility in discerning orthospecies from hybrids. Brittonia 50: 91--121; Hitchcock, C.L. 1961. Vasc. Pl. Pacific NorthW. Vol. 3; McKinney, L.E. 1992. A taxonomic revision of the acaulescent blue violets (Viola) of North Am. Sida Botanical Miscellany, 7: 1--59; McKinney, L.E. and N. Russell. 2002. Violaceae of the Southeastern United States. Castanea 4: 369--379; Russell, N.H. 1965. Violets (Viola) of the central and eastern United States: an introductory survey. Sida 1: 1--113