| Author | Greene | |
| Distribution | Previously included within V. lanceolata as a variety, but Weakley (2020) has elevated this taxon to full species status with reasons for justification. Limited essentially to the Coastal Plain, and known north only to Nash County, despite records from VA. To be looked for in the northern half of the province.
Occurs from southeastern VA south to southern FL and west to eastern TX. | |
| Abundance | Uncommon to locally fairly common in the southern Sandhills and inner Coastal Plain, but rare to uncommon farther eastward to Lenoir and New Hanover counties. Very rare north to Nash County and west to Anson County. | |
| Habitat | This species is restricted to ponded or other non-flowing waters -- pools, clay-based Carolina bays, depression ponds, and other mostly very small bodies of water. Usually not in ditches, margins of impoundment ponds, stream margins, and other damp ground of often moving water where the very similar V. lanceolata grows. | |
| Phenology | Flowers for much of the year, but fruits mainly in summer; V. lanceolata fruits in spring. | |
| Identification | This white-flowered species is very similar to V. lanceolata, but it has even narrower leaves -- strap-like to almost grass-like; at flowering time usually with a blade about 4 inches long but just 4-12 mm (less than 1/2-inch, often 1/3-inch) wide. The blade is thus 8-15 times as long as wide; those of V. lanceolata average 3-6 times as long as wide. The blade gradually tapers to the petiole, as opposed to more obviously tapering to the petiole in V. lanceolata. Weakley (2020) gives several other character differences between the two. | |
| Taxonomic Comments | See above. Some older references, including Gleason (1952), list these two as good species, but most recent ones do not.
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 White Violet | |
| State Rank | [S3] | |
| Global Rank | GNA [G3G5] | |
| State Status | | |
| US Status | | |
| USACE-agcp | | |
| USACE-emp | | |
