Scientific name: Viola riviniana Rchb.
Common name: Common Dog-violet
Description
Habit: Perennial, to 20 cm high.
Stems: Erect, leafy, tufted.
Leaves: Basal, forming a loose rosette, undivided, stalked, with stipules, broadly oval, heart-shaped.
Flowers: Violet, zygomorphic, hermaphrodite, solitary on erect flower stalks, arising from sides of basal rosette; sepals 5, free, equal, with short conspicuous extension below the insertion, 2.5 mm and enlarging in fruit; petals 5, free, unequal, the lower petal with a pale lilac, backwards directed spur that encloses nectar-secreting spurs of 2 lower stamens, the spur curved and furrowed at the tip; stamens 5; ovary 1-celled, style 1.
Fruits: A capsule, with numerous seeds.
Habitat: Heathy ground, banks, roadsides, hedges, woods and lake-shores.Distribution: Abundant throughout.
Native status: Native
Of conservation interest: No