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Species Image Gallery (opens in a new window) |
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| THE VIOLET FAMILY | |||||||||
| Violets can be annual or perennial herbs or shrubs. The leaves are simple and may be basal or on a leafy stem. This family has stipules, or paired bracts, below the leaves. The stipules are usually attached to the base of the leaf stalk. The flowers are usually irregular in shape. There are five sepals which may or may not have ear-like lobes at the base. There are five petals that range from white to yellow, green or purple in colour. The lower petals are usually spurred. | |||||||||
| NORTHERN WOODLAND VIOLET | |||||||||
| LATIN NAME: Viola septentrionalis | |||||||||
| WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE? | |||||||||
| Northern woodland violet has thick, fleshy rhizomes. The leaves are oval to kidney-shaped and the margin is regularly toothed. The flowers are solitary on basal stalks. The sepal margins are long-hairy nearly to the tip and have spreading ear-like lobes at the base. The petals are all hairy at the base and are deep violet to purple in colour. The fruit is a yellowish, three-valved capsule. | |||||||||
| WHERE DOES IT GROW? | |||||||||
| Northern woodland violet grows in moist open woods and clearings. | |||||||||
| WHERE IS IT FOUND IN SASKATCHEWAN? | |||||||||
| This plant is found in east-central Saskatchewan in the Boreal Transition and Mid-Boreal Upland ecoregions. | |||||||||
| WHY IS IT RARE? | |||||||||
| Northern woodland violet is threatened because of extreme rarity in Saskatchewan. This species has only been located in one small region of the province and is usually locally sparse. | |||||||||
| HOW TO IDENTIFY NORTHERN WOODLAND VIOLET | |||||||||
| * Are the petals deep violet to purple? * Are all of the leaves basal? * Are the sepal margins long hairy nearly to the tip? * Did you find it in east-central Saskatchewan? | |||||||||
| If you answered yes to all of these questions, you may have found northern woodland violet! | |||||||||
