Viola pedatifida G. Don. Section: Nosphinium. Subsection: Borealiamericanae. Common name: Crowfoot Violet. Phenology: Chasmogamous flower Apr-May; chasmogamous fruit May-Jun; cleistogamous fruit May-Aug. Habitat: Organic loam of dry-mesic to mesic prairies. Distribution: ON west to AB, south to n. OH, IN, AR, OK, NM, and AZ; material disjunct in w. VA attributed as V. pedatifida is a new species, Viola tenuisecta.

ID notes: The broadly ovate to deltate reniform triternately divided leaf blades with slender linear ultimate segments are distinctive in this species and few others can be confused with it. It occasionally grows with V. pedata in drier prairies and the two are commonly mistaken for each other, but this species can immediately be distinguished by its ascending elongate rhizome, 2-to 3-times-divided terminal primary division on the largest leaf blades, free stipules, and densely bearded lateral and spurred petals. Like all other native Viola species in our region except for V. pedata, it expresses a mixed breeding system that shifts to cleistogamy in the summer, in which the capsules can easily be identified as cleistogamous by the tiny tightly curled style at the apex; V. pedata is strictly chasmogamous and, as such, does not produce such capsules after chasmogamous flower. This species can be distinguished from V. brittoniana, the other cut-leaved species in the i group, by its more extensively divided leaf blades with equally slender ultimate segments, usually ciliate sepals, and larger seeds. It was previously confused with but is different from V. tenuisecta in its triternate leaf blades appressed hirtellous along veins, lanceolate sharply acuminate ciliate sepals, prominent auricles, densely bearded spurred petal, unspotted cleistogamous capsule on an erect peduncle, and unspotted brown seeds. It can be distinguished from V. baxteri and V. subsinuata by its glabrous or sparsely hirtellous foliage, the indument (when present) composed of shorter hairs, lanceolate sharply acuminate ciliate sepals, prominent auricles, densely bearded spurred petal, unspotted cleistogamous capsule on an erect peduncle, and unspotted brown seeds.

Origin/Endemic status: Native

Synonymy ⓘ: = Ar, Can, F, G, GrPl, Il, K4, Mo3, NSProv, POWO, S13, Ballard () (in prep), Ballard, Kartesz, & Nishino (2023); = Viola palmata L. var. pedatifida (G.Don) Cronquist — C; = Viola pedatifida G.Don ssp. pedatifida — McKinney & Russell (2002); < Viola pedatifida G.Don — FNA6, NS. Basionym: Viola pedatifida G.Don 1831

Links to other floras: < Viola pedatifida - FNA6

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Wetland Indicator Status:

• Eastern Mountains and Piedmont: FACU (taxonomic split from wetland indicator species)
• Great Plains: FACU (taxonomic split from wetland indicator species)
• Midwest: FACU (taxonomic split from wetland indicator species)
• Northcentral & Northeast: FACU (taxonomic split from wetland indicator species)

Heliophily ⓘ: 9