Viola tricolor L.
heartsease
Annual, with short-lived rosette; stems erect or ascending, with short hairs or glabrous, 7-30 cm tall. Lvs (1)-2-4 cm long, glabrous or with short hairs, with 3-7 crenations or blunt teeth each side. Basal lvs broadly ovate, truncately narrowed to long petiole; stipules short, linear-lobed. Stem lvs becoming narrow-elliptic, the uppermost cuneately narrowed to short petiole; stipules pinnatifid to palmatifid, 1/2-3/4 lf length, with leaflike terminal lobe and 3-7 linear lateral lobes. Peduncles erect, glabrous; bracts short, narrowly triangular. Fls 1.5-2.5 cm diam. Sepals narrowly triangular, acute, 5-8 mm long; appendages 2-3 mm long. Petals violet and/or yellow and cream, the upper > the upper sepals, the lowest with yellow or orange blotch and purple veins, the lowest and lateral bearded; spur 3-4 mm long, usually > the sepal appendages. Style geniculate at base, 1 mm long; stigma globose, with ligule on lower surface. Capsule ellipsoid, glabrous, 5-10 mm long. Seeds oblong, pale brown, 1.5 mm long.
N.: Northland (Kerikeri), Auckland City, Waikato, Wellington; S.: Canterbury; St.
Eurasia 1872
Roadsides, riverbeds, stony waste land.
The lower portion of the stigma is shielded from self-pollination by a ligule, which is absent in the similar sp. V. arvensis (Fig. 123).
