Great-spurred violet gets its name from the long, thick spur on the back of each pale purple flower, the easiest way to tell it from other blue violets. It grows in cool, moist, shady woods around the Northern Hemisphere, and in the US it is found in the northern states, where it is rare at the edges of its range. It is also called Selkirk's violet.
Appearance
- Growth form
- A low, stemless perennial, 2–6 in (5–15 cm) tall, with leaves and flower stalks rising straight from a rhizome.
- Leaves
- All basal, heart-shaped with a pointed tip and scalloped edges. The basal lobes often touch or overlap, and only the upper surface is hairy.
- Flowers
- Pale blue to purple, about ½ in (1.5 cm) across, nodding on their stalks, with dark purple veins. The side petals have no beard of hairs, and the spur is about ¼ in (5–7 mm) long.
- Flowering time
- April to July; May in Minnesota.
- Fruit
- An upright capsule that splits open when ripe.
Look-alikes
Where it lives
- Typical habitats
- Cool moist woods
- Ravines
- Mossy rock crevices
- Rotting logs
- Range
- Found in cool regions all around the Northern Hemisphere. In the US it grows in northern states including New England (Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut), Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Montana, South Dakota, and Colorado.
- Preferred conditions
- Part shade to full shade in rich, moist, organic soil; often seems to favor limestone soils.
- Flowering
Flowers May
Flowers May
Life cycle
- Seed dispersal
- The ripe capsule flings its seeds, and ants carry them off.
Conservation
- IUCN Red List
- NENot EvaluatedNot yet assessed
- Status
- Rare at the southern edge of its US range. Several states, including Colorado and Pennsylvania, list it as imperiled.
Culture and stories
- Culture and stories
- The botanist Frederick Pursh named it for Thomas Douglas, 5th Earl of Selkirk, who had picked Pursh for a planned trip to the Red River Colony in what is now Manitoba. At the time the plant was known only from near Montreal.
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