Viola identification please

[Roma]

I bought the following tiny viola from Peter Korn when he was in Scotland in October 2007. Can anyone give me a name for it.  The photo was taken in late May last year.

[WimB]

Hi Roma,

this is probably Viola hederacea.

[Lesley Cox]

I don't think so. I DO know it but the name has escaped me for the moment. I think it's Japanese and the name is a long one. The leaves are wrong for hederacea (Australian). This one seeds about and can be a bit of a nuisance but is pretty in a cool trough or pathway.

[WimB]

Of course, no trailing habit also. It might be Viola verecunda??

[Gerdk]

Of course, no trailing habit also. It might be Viola verecunda??

Lesley + Wim, thank you for the food for thoughts -
this might be Viola verecunda and if it is very small V. verecunda var. yakusimanum - with the reputation being the smallest violet.

Gerd

[Lesley Cox]

That's it! I had it with the varietal name as well, hence my feeling that it had a long name and yes, mine was tiny and I knew it as the smallest viola in the world. Perhaps yours is larger Wim and so not the yakusimana var? Either way, it's very cute.

Wish my aging brain clicked into gear qiuicker though.

[Sinchets]

Thanks for posting that Roma took me straight back to 1988 and my first order of alpines from Ingwerson's. Wish the Viola was still with me. I remember the same year i had seed from Chiltern's of Hypericum pseudopetiolatum yakushimanum which  do still have- also only about 2cm tall. (I am not sure if the name is still valid). Yakushima was always on my list of places to visit if I ever had enough money.

[Rodger Whitlock]

Viola verecunda yakusimana: a difficult plant to winter over, in my experience. Yet I have corresponded with someone in Ithaca, New York, who has it seeding into her lawn!

Does anyone know anything about the geology of the island of Yakushima, the island whence this little treasure originates? I am gradually coming to the conclusion that Japanese plants as a rule do not enjoy acidic soil, and may even prefer quite limey soils.

Comments?

[Lesley Cox]

Nothing I can say about the geology of Yakushima, but I've read about the island as "a store house of the best forms of many Japanese alpine plants." So far as lime is concerned, what about shortias, rhododendrons etc?

[Sinchets]

I am not sure if i am remembering this right, but I think I read somewhere the island was volcanic and very windswept- and that this was why it had so many dwraf plants including dwarf bamboo.

[WimB]

Lesley,

I once had Viola verecunda but it died after a couple of years. This small form looks very nice, I had never heard about it before.

Rodger,

if I remember correctly Yakushima island has a bedrock of granite (so that would normally make it slightly acid).

[Lvandelft]

Last year I received a Viola spec. with on the label Viola spec. S. Africa

[Gerdk]

Hi Luit,
There are only two violets endemic to South Arica and both looks totally different.
Please have a look at the resulting capsules of your plant - if they turn to the ground, being roundish and not exploding it might be Viola odorata ore something near to it.

Gerd

[Lvandelft]

Thank  you Gerd. I was thinking about V. odorata too, at least the plant looks like that.
But I received it from a good gardener in Switzerland, so I was doubting a bit.
I looked at the capsule today and it is bending down and not exploding already.
Maybe the label was right, but in the pot was growing some seedling of V. odorata

[Roma]

Lesley, Wim ,Gerd, thank you for the identification of my viola.  It was flowering when I bought it in October 07 and stayed evergreen that winter.  It started flowering again in the spring and was at its best when the photo was taken.  It stopped flowering in late summer and started to produce cleistogamous seed.  It was close to Violas koreana and jooi doing the same thing so there are interesting seedlings in neighbouring pots.  Luckily they look quite different from an early age.  Last winter the Viola verecunda died down but is growing away well now with the first flower buds to open soon.  I measured the largest leaf and it is just over a centimetre across.