Viola riviniana, the Common Dog-violet, is a species of the genus Viola

Violet (plant)

Viola is a genus of flowering plants in the violet family Violaceae, with around 400–500 species distributed around the world. Most species are found in the temperate Northern Hemisphere; however, viola species are also found in widely divergent areas such as Hawaii, Australasia, and the Andes in...

. It is also called wood violet or dog violet

Dog violet

Dog violet is the common name for various species of the plant genus Viola with unscented flowers. The term arose to differentiate them from the scented sweet violet. Species so named include:*Viola canina - heath dog violet...

. It is a perennial herb of woodland rides, grassland and shady hedge banks. It is found in all soils except acid or very wet.

It is a perennial, which flowers from April to June.

Its leaves are heart shaped with rounded teeth and are usually hairless. It has 2 slender bracts, 6 sepals spear shaped lobed at the base, 5 overlapping petals with a backward pointing spur. Once the flower has been fertilised, the spur

Spur (biology)

A spur in botany is a spike, usually part of a flower.In certain plants, part of a sepal or petal develops into an elongated hollow spike extending behind the flower, containing nectar which is sucked by long-tongued animals . Plants with such structures include Delphinium, Aquilegia, Piperia, and...

 will split into 3 to reveal the egg shaped seeds - see Viola description.

Toothed stipules can be found at the base of the plant.

Viola riviniana was voted the County flower

County flowers of the United Kingdom

The following are the flowers selected for the historic counties of the United Kingdom in Plantlife's 2002 "County Flowers" campaign...

 of Lincolnshire

Lincolnshire

Lincolnshire is a county in the east of England. It borders Norfolk to the south east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south west, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire to the west, South Yorkshire to the north west, and the East Riding of Yorkshire to the north. It also borders...

 in 2002 following a poll by the wild plant conservation charity Plantlife

Plantlife

Plantlife is a wild plant conservation charity. As of 2007, its membership was 10,500 and it owned 23 nature reserves around the UK.-History:It was founded in 1989 with its first President being Professor David Bellamy. By 1999 it had 22 nature reserves....

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Name

The name 'Dog' - probably suggests that this plant was thought to be inferior to the scented violet (viola odorata), which was particularly favoured during the Victorian Era.

Wildlife value

It is the foodplant of the Pearl bordered fritillary, Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary

Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary

The Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary , called the Silver-bordered Fritillary in North America, is a butterfly of the Nymphalidae family...

, Silver-washed Fritillary

Silver-washed Fritillary

Argynnis paphia is a common and variable butterfly found over much of the Palaearctic ecozone – Algeria, Europe, temperate Asia and Japan.-Subspecies:*A. p. butleri Krulikovsky, 1909 Northern Europe, Central Europe...

 and High Brown Fritillary

High Brown Fritillary

The High Brown Fritillary is a butterfly of the Nymphalidae family, native from Europe across mainland Asia to Japan.The adults fly in July/August and lay eggs near to the larval food plants which are species of violets,...

 butterfly

Butterfly

A butterfly is a mainly day-flying insect of the order Lepidoptera, which includes the butterflies and moths. Like other holometabolous insects, the butterfly's life cycle consists of four parts: egg, larva, pupa and adult. Most species are diurnal. Butterflies have large, often brightly coloured...

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Similar species

• Sweet Violet Viola odorata - sweetly scented and has all the leaves at the base of the plant, the stipules are gland tipped
• Heath Dog Violet Viola canina
  Viola canina
  Viola canina is a species of the genus Viola, native to Europe, where it is found in the uplands of box hill in Dorset, heaths, fens, and moist woodlands, especially on acidic soils....
  
   - has clear blue flowers, narrower leaves and smaller teeth on the stipules
• Marsh Violet Viola palustris
  Viola palustris
  Viola palustris is a perennial forb of the genus Viola. It inhabits moist meadows, marshes, and streambanks in northern parts of North America and Eurasia....
  
   - found in wet places, leaves are kidney shaped which come from underground creeping stems, and the flowers are dark-veined. The stipules have no teeth at all.
• Alpine Violet Viola labradorica
  Viola labradorica
  Viola labradorica is a perennial native to Greenland, eastern Canada, and the United States. The plant sold as Viola labradorica by nurseries is Viola riviniana.-Culinary:...
  
   - V. riviniana is sometimes sold by nurseries as V. labradorica.

Note that pansies are also of the Viola Genus.

Hybrids

This species hybridises with Early Dog-violet (V. reichenbachiana) to produce Viola × bavarica.

Cultural icon

Dog violets, and badges depicting them, were sold in fund-raising efforts in the UK and Australia on and around Violet Day in commemoration of the lost soldiers of World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

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Identification

• Partridge, James (2007) Viola × bavarica: the punctual Dog-violet BSBI News 106:8-9 (illustrated with colour photographs on inside back cover of this edition)