Hesperis matronalis L.
dame's violet
Biennial or perennial up to 1 m tall; rootstock woody; hairs simple and branched. Lvs ovate, hairy, simple, toothed, tapering to petiole; lower lvs to 50 × 10 cm, petiolate; upper lvs smaller, narrower, very shortly petiolate. Racemes 10-20 cm long. Sepals hairy with scarious or pinkish margins, 5-7 × c. 2 mm. Petals white to violet, 12-15 × 4-5 mm. Silique curved, 60-100 × 1.5-2 mm, erect on spreading pedicels 10-20-(30) mm long; valves ± glabrous, constricted between the seeds. Seeds brown, 3-4 mm long.
N.; S.: throughout.
C. and S. Europe, Siberia, Caucasus 1899
Local, occasionally persistent in waste land and old gardens, mostly in South Id.
FL Nov-Apr Jan-Apr.
