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Key to Viola

Violaceae

Viola

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(c) Ward, Scott G
1 Plant caulescent (producing aerial stems bearing leaves and flowers at above-ground nodes).
  2 Corolla yellow, or white with a yellow center (sometimes fading or drying to lavender), ventral surface of petals commonly pink- or purple- to brown-tinged); stipules entire or erose
  2 Corolla wholly cream-colored, or cream with a yellow center, or pale blue, violet to purple, or multicolored (violet to purple with orange or yellow); stipules fringed or deeply lobed
(c) Sorrie, Bruce A. - CC-BY
1 Plant acaulescent (with leaves and flowers/fruits arising separately from the rootstock) at spring flowering (V. rotundifolia is acaulescent during spring flowering and is included here, but it produces a stolon-like prostrate stem in summer with 0-1 leaf and a cyme with 1-3 capsules).
    3 Corolla yellow; leaf blades (sub)orbicular; leaf blades nearly or completely prostrate on substrate, especially during fruit
    3 Corolla violet, purple, blue, or white; leaf blades variously shaped; leaf blades (some at least on a plant) usually held well above the substrate (commonly prostrate on substrate during fruit in V. hirsutula and V. villosa, at least the outer leaves prostrate in V. fimbriatula).
© Duke Herbarium staff
      4 Plant producing stolons (stolons absent in V. renifolia); corolla violet, or white with greenish-white throat, mostly < 1 cm long in profile (> 1 cm, in V. odorata with white or purple corolla)
(c) Witsell, Theo - CC-BY-NC, permission granted to NCBG
      4 Plant not producing stolons; corolla violet to purple (lower three or all five petals blue in V. pedata, white with grayish-violet eyespot around throat in V. communis [V. priceana], whitish in V. floridana [“peninsular Florida” variant], white in rare albinos of many species), > 1 cm long in profile
(c) Fleming, Gary P.
        5 All leaf blades undivided, margins merely crenate or serrate (pectinately serrate in V. pectinata; occasional V. edulis in early chasmogamous flower without lobed leaf blades will key to V. langloisii but has ovate-triangular sepals with shorter broader auricles < 2 mm long).