Scientific name: Viola tricolor L.
Common name: Wild Pansy
Description
Habit: Annual to perennial.
Stems: Erect.
Leaves: Alternate on the stem or basal, stalked, with stipules that are deeply divided into narrow lobes, undivided, oval, bluntly toothed.
Flowers: Violet blue or yellow or a combination of the two, zygomorphic, hermaphrodite, to 2.5 cm across, solitary on erect flower stalks axillary or arising from basal rosette; sepals 5, free, equal, with short extension below the insertion; petals 5, free, unequal, the lower petal with 3-6.5 mm a purple backwards directed spur that encloses nectar-secreting spurs of 2 lower stamens; stamens 5; ovary 1-celled, style 1.
Fruits: A capsule, with numerous seeds.
Habitat: Viola tricolor subsp. tricolor found in cultivated ground and margins of small lanes; V. tricolor subsp. curtisii found in sand-dunes.Distribution: V. tricolor subsp. tricolor is rather rare; V. tricolor subsp. curtisii is locally abundant.
Native status: Native
Of conservation interest: No
Subspecies
V. tricolor subsp. tricolor
Viola tricolor subsp. curtisii (Forst.) Syme
Subsp. tricolor is an annual without underground stems and with violet flowers. Subsp. curtisii is a perennial with tufted, erect and often branched stems and creeping underground stems; the flowers are partly or entirely yellow.