Viola persicifolia

Fen violet
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
(unranked): Angiosperms
(unranked): Eudicots
(unranked): Rosids
Order: Malpighiales
Family: Violaceae
Genus: Viola
Species: V. persicifolia
Binomial name
Viola persicifolia
Schreber
Synonyms

Viola stagnina Kit.

Viola persicifolia, the fen violet, is a violet (family Violaceae), native to central and northern Europe and northern Asia.

It grows to a height of 10–30 cm from a creeping rhizome, with narrow, triangular leaves 7–15 mm across. The flowers are produced in late spring to early summer, 10–15 mm diameter, pale bluish or yellowish-white with a short, greenish or yellowish spur. The petals are rounded and broad in relation to their width.

Its habitat is confined to very local damp, lime-rich places, in long herbage (fens and limy marshes).

In the British Isles, it is rare, confined to eastern and northern England and damp hollows with limestone soils in western Ireland. Efforts are being made to re-introduce it to newly suitable habitat in The Fens as part of the Great Fen Project.Proper Moy Soil.

References and external links