Viola primulifolia Linnaeus. Section: Plagiostigma. Subsection: Stolonosae. Primrose-leaf Violet. Phen: Chasmogamous flower Dec-Jun; chasmogamous fruit Jan-Jun; cleistogamous Hab: Bogs, wet savannas, pocosins, sandhill streamhead ecotones, moist organic soils along small streams. Dist: NL (Newfoundland) to ON, south to s. FL, and west to TX and se. OK.

ID notes: This species is sufficiently distinct in leaf morphology that it is likely to be confused only with two other long-leaved species in subsect. Stolonosae. It differs most obviously from V. lanceolata and V. vittata, with which it occasionally grows and hybridizes, in its proportionally and physically broader leaf blades with broadly cuneate to shallowly cordate base. Its foliage is occasionally hirtellous, especially in populations in the middle and southern portions of its range, providing an additional difference from V. lanceolata, and produces leafy summer stolons with cleistogamous capsules, differing further from V. vittata. It might be mistaken for V. blanda, but its leaves are erect, the basal lobes on plants with subcordate or shallowly cordate leaf blades are extremely short and divergent, pubescence (if present) is not confined to the upper surface of the leaf blades, and the unspotted cleistogamous capsule sits on a tall erect peduncle.

Origin/Endemic status: Native

Synonymy ⓘ: = Ar, C, Fl2, GW2, Il, K3, K4, NE, Pa, RAB, S, S13, Tat, Tn, Tx, Va, W, WH3, WV, Ballard () (in prep), Ballard, Kartesz, & Nishino (2023), Haines (2001), McKinney & Russell (2002); = Viola ×primulifolia L. (pro sp.) – K1; = Viola primulifolia L. var. primulifolia – FNA6; > Viola primulifolia L. var. acuta (Bigelow) Torr. & A.Gray – F; > Viola primulifolia L. var. primulifolia – F, G; > Viola primulifolia L. var. villosa Eaton – F, G

Links to other floras: = Viola primulifolia var. primulifolia - FNA6

Show in key(s)

Show parent genus

Wetland Indicator Status:

• Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Plain: FACW
• Eastern Mountains and Piedmont: FAC
• Great Plains: FAC
• Midwest: FACW
• Northcentral & Northeast: FACW

Heliophily ⓘ: 5