Evil violets

[Rodger Whitlock]

"Viola arenaria rosea" and "Viola labradorica": a curse upon both of them, their seedlings, their offsets, their leaves, stems, roots, and flowers, their very chromosomes. And if they have Golgi bodies, a curse on those too!

Fortunately my garden doesn't have the pesky, dark-leaved V.l., but it's awash with the equally horrible V.a.r. I planted V.a.r. in one bed immediately behind my house perhaps 20 years ago. These days, it's spread across the width of the house on that side, around the SE corner, up the eastern side, and is trying to navigate around the NE corner and colonize the front of the house. I am into my second year of digging it up; fortunately I have a long, strong fern trowel that allows me to remove the root system as well as the above ground growth.

If you, or any member of your family, is induced to bring either of these evil violets into the garden, disabuse them of their thinking that these are desirable garden plants. They would be admirable, but both of them have a propensity to spread that makes them weeds, plain and simple.

It appears that the proper name of V.l. is Viola riviniana, but I have been unable to find out what the correct name of V.a.r. is.

You — and your family — have been warned.

[maggiepie]

Rodger, do you have any pics?
I would like to see your V.l.
I have the dark leaved V.l but it only self seeds gently here.
Is Viola arenaria rosea the Teesdale violet?

[Carlo]

V. labradorica is not a pest for me either...although I keep it in very poor soil which may discourage it from rampaging...

[Diane Whitehead]

I think the purple-leaved labradorica that is taking over the Pacific
coast is not from Labrador.  I asked Easterners a few years ago about
it, and whatever they are growing back East doesn't seem to be the
same thing.

I have poor soil.  Purple-leaved loves it.  Pulling it doesn't eradicate it.
The rather deep purple roots need digging out.

I will go outside with my camera to see if there are any that I've missed.

OK.  I didn't find any in flower, but maybe the leaves will be
informative.  The leaves are not as purple as they will be later.

[TheOnionMan]

It appears that the proper name of V.l. is Viola riviniana, but I have been unable to find out what the correct name of V.a.r. (Viola arenaria rosea) is.

The taxonomy is puzzling, but it seems that V. arenaria is currently considered V. ruprestris.  It is stated that the North American form has leaves that are more rounded than the European counterpart.  The distribution of V. ruprestris is given as: Eurasia, most of Europe, Asia minor, Central Asia, Afghanistan and Pakistan, leaving out North America, so I wonder if the N.American plant is now considered a different species, retaining "arenaria" of one of its other synonyms.  I did find one link where "arenaria" is listed as a subspecies of ruprestris, as Viola rupestris ssp. arenaria.  A few links:

Viola arenaria (Sand Violet)
http://books.google.com/books?id=nogCAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA454&lpg=PA454&dq=Viola+arenaria&source=bl&ots=QdZVVUcwYp&sig=WhtMjM5Jjb6wS_p6GIpPr5Fgl0U&hl=en&ei=fnBfS5WPHZLJlAe4zPjrCw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=8&ved=0CBYQ6AEwBw#v=onepage&q=Viola%20arenaria&f=false

Flora of Pakistan, Viola ruprestris (syn. V. arenaria)
http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=5&taxon_id=200014415

Illustrations of the British Flora (1924)
http://luirig.altervista.org/cpm-gallery/main.php?title=Viola+arenaria

Surprisingly, V. arenaria and rupestris are both absent from Erza Brainard's Violets of North America (1921) and his Some Natural Violet Hybrids of North America (1924).

In lots of nursery links you'll find the name Viola arenaria rosea:
http://www.pantyfodgarden.co.uk/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=689
Viola arenaria rosea £4.50
 
The link above states:  "A lovely pink form of the wild Teesdale Violet, which will naturalise without becoming invasive"

Another nursery offering:
http://www.raybrowns.com/perennial-flower-seeds/verbena-to-wahlenbergia/VIOLA-ARENARIA-ROSEA-(Violaceae)-HP.html

And, if you want a botanical painting of "Sand Dog Violet Viola Arenaria", go no further than here:
http://www.old-print.com/cgi-bin/item/E1441902591

Rodger, at £4.50 per plant of Viola arenaria rosea, you might have a small fortune there 

[Ed Alverson]

Thanks Rodger for bringing this up. I see purple violets (presumably of European origin) escaping from gardens in these parts as well.  However, most commonly I see Viola odorata, presumably the variety praecox because the peak of bloom is in late winter (February).  Unfortunately I have it all over my yard, though I do enjoy its early blooms.

Can anyone recommend a good key to European Viola? It is difficult to correctly identify these interlopers because most are not included our local and regional floras.

Interestingly, in the Pacific Northwest, our most common species of violets have yellow flowers.  The native purple or blue flowered species are generally uncommon or restricted to specialized habitats in our area, so sometimes when people find one of these purple-flowered garden escapes they think they have found an interesting native species, when in actuality they are observing the ability of ants to spread seeds from gardens to the wild.

Ed

[Armin]

Ed,
I don't have a good key of European violets but a link with good pictures of the S/W German flora
(in German language only, if you have Google toolbar installed you can use autotranslate function to English language)

http://blumeninschwaben.de/artenverzeichnis1.htm

Klick on "Artenverzeichnis"(list of specis) and select Vi-Z in the right block (latin names), scroll down until you find "viola".

[TheOnionMan]

I don't have a good key of European violets but a link with good pictures of the S/W German flora
(in German language only, if you have Google toolbar installed you can use autotranslate function to English language)
http://blumeninschwaben.de/artenverzeichnis1.htm

Armin, an excellent web site!  Note only useful for Viola (including natural hybrids), but for a whole range of plants.  I checked out the Allium listing and I really like how the web pages are set up as visual keys.  The inclusion of diagnostic images of detailed plant characteristics is very useful.  The Allium images are very crisp and clear, as are many of the images of other plant genera.  I bookmarked this site, thanks for bringing it to our attention.  Re: violets, there are some good photos of the subject V. rupestris (syn. V. arenaria).

[Armin]

Mark,
I'm pleased you like it It is indeed a quite good site.
I use it to identfy local specis I'm not familiar with.

[David Nicholson]

Very useful Site Armin, thanks for telling us about it. I've added to my Favourites too.

[ruweiss]

Lieber Armin,
many thanks for showing us this excellent site, I had no idea about this useful source
of  information.

[Armin]

David, Rudi, it was my a pleasure. The honour belongs Gerd. He provided me this excellent source once.