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A native dog violet that carpets the ground where it is happy. There are some local populations on road
embankments that colour the ground lilac. It grows throughout the garden, usually at the fringes of a tree or shrub canopy. It also appears quite quickly
in pots and tubs outside. The BSBI say: "This rosette-forming, wintergreen perennial is very variable in form, but when in flower is usually recognised by its broad, overlapping violet-coloured, upper petals decorated with much-branched, spreading, purple veins on the broad, lowest petal. The flower also has lanceolate sepals, 1.5 mm or more and enlarging when in fruit, and a stout, pale, yellowish-green spur that is conspicuously notched at the rear. V. riviniana tolerates a very wide range of soil type and nutrient status, though it is most frequent and abundant on moist, semi-shaded, infertile, unproductive habitats, especially in lowland deciduous woods and margins of scrub. Under deciduous woodland canopy, V. riviniana is not sufficiently vigorous to compete successfully with dense patch-forming vernal species such as Hyacinthoides non-scripta (Bluebell), Ranunculus ficaria (Lesser Celandine) and Anemone nemorosa (Wood Anemone). It can however become plentiful and conspicuous on more shallow, rather drier soils on banks or near rocks, and also in ground where relatively large amounts of tree litter accumulates, a situation that excludes most other herbaceous species." |
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| 8th April 2007 | ||
