| Author | Smith. | |
| Distribution | Throughout the Mountains, and scattered through the Piedmont -- east to Rockingham, Guilford, and Durham counties. Our map reflects specimens at NCU that were annotated by Harvey Ballard in July 2024, plus examined specimens at SERNEC.
Eastern Canada west to WI, and south to NC, eastern TN, and Midwestern states. | |
| Abundance | Fairly common to rather common in the Mountains, but uncommon in most of the western half of the Piedmont. | |
| Habitat | A species of dry, upland sites, often sandy; dry wooded borders, roadsides, glades, and open woods. Can be somewhat weedy on roadsides and recent clearings. | |
| Phenology | Blooms in April and early May, and fruits soon after flowering. | |
| Identification | This is a short species, with several leaves, all basal, with only a very short petiole. The several blades are lanceolate, with convex margins, and usually several large teeth at the leaf base corners; the base is usually truncate to cordate. Leaves are often angled upward. The flowers are violet-blue, as is typical for many violet species. It is quite similar to the closely related V. emarginata, which has leaves more triangular, often with straight sides; blades are usually only as long as wide or barely longer. | |
| Taxonomic Comments | Weakley (2018) had this taxon included within V. sagittata, but his 2020 version has it split back out as a valid species, as did RAB (1968) and most other older references.
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) | Sand Violet, Arrowleaf Violet (used mainly for V. sagittata) | |
| State Rank | [S3S4] | |
| Global Rank | GNA [G5] | |
| State Status | | |
| US Status | | |
| USACE-agcp | | |
| USACE-emp | | |
