Viola hederacea

Viola hederacea, the Australian violet, is a species of flowering plant in the family Violaceae, native to Australia.

Viola hederacea
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Rosids
Order: Malpighiales
Family: Violaceae
Genus: Viola
Species:
V. hederacea
Binomial name
Viola hederacea
Labill.

Description

The Latin specific epithet hederacea means "like ivy", referring to the leaves which resemble the leaves of Hedera species (which are not closely related).[1]

The flowers are usually rather pale and washed-out looking, the anterior petal (the one at the bottom of the flower when looking face on, is widest towards its apex, and the mature seeds are brown. Well-developed leaves of Viola hederacea are also distinctive – semicircular in outline, about as broad as long, and usually rather dark green above and paler beneath.

Distribution

This small herbaceous perennial is common and widespread in Victoria and Tasmania, along the Great Dividing Range in New South Wales north at least to the Barrington Tops area, in the far south-east of South Australia, and in a small area of the Adelaide Hills between Belair and Mount Lofty.

Cultivation

True Viola hederacea is infrequently grown in gardens. It is a less spectacular plant than the cultivated species Viola banksii, with a more open, less robust habit and less striking flowers. Nevertheless, it is easy to cultivate.

Most ornamental cultivars labelled as Viola hederacea are actually Viola banksii, which was until recently included within V. hederacea[2] but differs in the more richly coloured flowers with an almost circular anterior petal and almost circular leaves with a deep sinus (V. hederacea has paler flowers with an obovate anterior petal and more or less reniform leaves with a broad sinus).

References
  1. Harrison, Lorraine (2012). RHS Latin for Gardeners. United Kingdom: Mitchell Beazley. ISBN 184533731X.
  2. Thiele, Kevin R; Prober, Suzanne M (2003). "New species and a new hybrid in the Viola hederacea species complex, with notes on Viola hederacea Labill." (PDF). Muelleria. 18: 7–25. Retrieved 16 February 2018.
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