| Author | Burwell & Ballard | |
| Distribution | This is a newly described species, in fall 2025, in paper in Castanea by Remington Burwell and Harvey Ballard Jr. It ranges over much of the Coastal Plain, and perhaps into the edge of the Piedmont (in Nash County). There are verified iNat photos from Gates, Martin, and Carteret counties.
"Se. lower Atlantic Coastal Plain, se. VA to GA." (Weakley 2024) | |
| Abundance | Weakley's (2024) map shows it as rare in NC. The website editors suggest S2? for now, based on collections from 13 counties, and Watch List status, owing to it being a newly described species and perhaps an overlooked taxon at that, being likely confused in NC with V. affinis or V. cucullata. | |
| Habitat | "Sandy alluvium along streams and rivers" (Weakley 2024). "It grows in and around riparian baldcypress-swamps and deciduous floodplains" (Burwell and Ballard 2025). | |
| Phenology | Flowers and fruits in March and April. | |
| Identification | See Weakley (2024) for his key. He states: "Corolla violet lacking contrasting 'eyespot' around throat but with flush of dark purple at base of lateral petal; lowest sepals lance- to ovate-triangular; lateral petal beards long, with slightly clavate hairs". The spurred Petal lacks a beard entirely. The few photos on Google images show flowers that are lavender in color with dark purple lines on the base of all petals, especially the lateral ones and the lowest petal. Whether that color pattern is a field mark is not known, but it is not stated in the key. | |
| Taxonomic Comments | Weakley (2024) states: "Recently detected as a relative of the Gulf Coast V. langloisii but distinct from it in flower, fruit and seed features; misidentified in collections as V. affinis or V. cucullata and likely more common over its range." As mentioned above, this taxon was given a formal name in 2025.
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) | None | |
| State Rank | [S2?] | |
| Global Rank | GNA | |
| State Status | [W7] | |
| US Status | | |
| USACE-agcp | | |
| USACE-emp | | |
