Scientific name: Viola palustris L.
Common name: Marsh Violet
Description
Habit: Perennial.
Stems: Leaves and flower stalks arise from slender and creeping rhizomes or stolons, no overground stems apparent.
Leaves: Basal, undivided, stalked, with stipules, round, notched at the base, stalk hairy.
Flowers: Bluish lilac often with darker veins, zygomorphic, hermaphrodite, solitary on erect flower stalks, arising from basal rosette; sepals 5, free, equal, with short extension below the insertion; petals 5, free, unequal, the lower petal with a backwards directed, bluish-lilac spur that encloses nectar-secreting spurs of 2 lower stamens; stamens 5; ovary 1-celled, style 1.
Fruits: A hairless capsule, longer than broad, with numerous seeds.
Habitat: Marshes, bog-margins, streamsides.Distribution: Frequent to abundant on acid soils, unknown on the limestone.
Native status: Native
Of conservation interest: No