| Author | Walter | |
| Distribution | Limited to the Southern Coastal Plain, mainly in the Sandhills, but ranging east to the southern coast. Occurs north to Onslow, Harnett, and Moore counties.
This is a Southern species, ranging disjunctly from MD south to central FL and west to eastern TX and OK. | |
| Abundance | Rare to uncommon in the Sandhills, generally rare eastward to the coast. This is a Watch List species. | |
| Habitat | This is a species of mesic to moist sandy forested soil, generally along pocosin margins, near streamhead pocosins, and in loamy soil of swales in pinewoods. It does not normally grow in the drier Longleaf Pine (Pinus palustris)/scrub oak sandhill stands. | |
| Phenology | Blooms from late February into early April, one of the earliest herbaceous species to bloom in the Sandhills region. It fruits shortly after flowering. | |
| Identification | This is a quite hairy species of acaulescent blue-violet flowered violets. It has a flowering stalk only about 4 inches tall, with a typical blue-violet flower atop each stalk. The several basal leaves are heart-shaped, with a rounded/obtuse apex, quite hirsute/hairy on both surfaces, about 1-1.5 inches across and long, but they are evergreen and often lie flat on the ground and thus distinct from nearly all other similar species. The habitat -- interiors of Sandhills and other Coastal Plain forests -- also rules out nearly all other violets in the state. The very common and widespread V. sororia could grow near it, but it has thin and clearly deciduous leaves that are not strongly hairy, and its leaves are normally erect to spreading; the leaves are also pointed at the apex instead of rounded in V. villosa. This "interesting" species, unfortunately, is somewhat difficult to find, usually easier to encounter in mid to late winter than later in the season when many other herbaceous species are present. | |
| Taxonomic Comments | None
General note on Viola: In 2009-10 B.A. Sorrie (website map editor) went through the whole collection at NCU, annotating all specimens against those verified by experts in the genus. The range maps in RAB (1968) have been changed accordingly. More recently, Harvey Ballard and colleagues are in the process of revising all Eastern and Southeastern Viola, and have annotated all specimens at NCU in July 2024. They recognize additional species not in RAB or in previous editions of Weakley et al.; we will follow updated editions of Weakley et al. in recognizing them. Species range maps have been adjusted to account for identification changes. | |
| Other Common Name(s) | Southern Woolly Violet | |
| State Rank | S2 | |
| Global Rank | G5 | |
| State Status | W7 [W1] | |
| US Status | | |
| USACE-agcp | FACU link |
| USACE-emp | FACU link |
