Viola tricolor is a common European wild flower, growing as an annual or short-lived perennial. The species is also known as wild pansy, Johnny Jump up (though this name is also applied to similar species such as the yellow pansy), heartsease, heart's ease, heart's delight, tickle-my-fancy, Jack-jump-up-and-kiss-me, come-and-cuddle-me, three faces in a hood, love-in-idleness, and pink of my john.
It has been introduced into North America, where it has spread. It is the progenitor of the cultivated pansy, and is therefore sometimes called wild pansy; before the cultivated pansies were developed, "pansy" was an alternative name for the wild form. It can produce up to 50 seeds at a time. The flowers can be purple, blue, yellow or white.
Description
Flowers of Viola tricolor
Viola tricolor is a small plant of creeping and ramping habit, reaching at most 15 centimetres (6 in) in height, with flowers about
The flowers are solitary and lateral, hoisted on long peduncles. They appear on aerial stems with more or less long internodes. The sepals are never larger than the corolla. It is 10 to 25 millimetres (3⁄8 to 1 in) long. This corolla can be purple, blue, yellow or white. It can most often be two-tone, yellow and purple. The tricolor shape, yellow, white and purple, is the most sought after.
It flowers from April to September (in the Northern Hemisphere). The plants are hermaphroditic and self-fertile, pollinated by bees.
Distribution and habitat
It is common almost everywhere on the Eurasian continent, near the sea or inland, at altitudes ranging from 0 to 2,700 metres (8,900 ft). It grows in open grasslands, wastelands, mainly on acidic or neutral soils and usually in partial shade. It is also found on the banks and in the alluviums.
Ecology
In Iceland, Viola tricolor is known to be a host for at least two species of plant pathogenic fungi, Pleospora herbarum and Ramularia agrestis.
Uses
As an ornamental and medicinal plant, the wild pansy has been...
