| Author | Aiton | |
| Distribution | Throughout the Mountains; scattered in the Piedmont, mainly in the northern half of the province; sparingly in the far northern Coastal Plain, with a disjunct record for Jones County. Absent from the Sandhills. A specimen from Lee County (at DUKE) was annotated to V. sororia by NH Russell and to V. cucullata by H Ballard. The habitat, floodplain forest, is wrong for cucullata and so the record is not accepted here. | |
| Abundance | Frequent to common in the Mountains; uncommon in the western and northern portions of the Piedmont, and very rare in the northern Coastal Plain. | |
| Habitat | This is a wetland species, growing in seepages, springs, bogs, creek margins, and other damp ground. |
| Phenology | Blooms from April to June, and fruits shortly after flowering. | |
| Identification | This is one of many acaulescent, blue-violet-flowered violets in NC. The basal leaves are similar to many others, being heart-shaped to almost triangular, cordate at the base, and about 3 inches long and wide, a bit larger than most similar species. However, it has the flowering stalk raised far above the leaves, reaching 6-8 inches tall. The light blue-violet flowers are darker violet in the center; nearly all others are white or paler in the throat. The two lateral petals are bearded, and the lower petal is generally smaller than others. This is a frequently seen species along mountain streamsides, or in seepages in montane forests and edges. The quite tall stalk that places the flower well above the leaves should be easily noted, and the dark center to the flowers is also a helpful character. | |
| 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) | Bog Violet, Marsh Violet | |
| State Rank | S4 | |
| Global Rank | G5 | |
| State Status | | |
| US Status | | |
| USACE-agcp | OBL link |
| USACE-emp | FACW link |
