Viola selkirkii Pursh ex Goldie. Section: Plagiostigma. Subsection: Patellares. Selkirk's Violet, Great Spurred Violet. Phen: Chasmogamous flower Apr-May (-Sep); chasmogamous fruit May-Jun (-Sep); cleistogamous fruit Jul-Aug. Hab: Cool forests and in rock crevices. Dist: Circumboreal: NL to AK, south to RI, PA, WI, n. MN and n. WA, disjunct in SD and CO; Greenland, Eurasia.

ID notes:This species is distinctive in its pale blue to purple corolla with glabrous petals and a somewhat elongate thick club-shaped spur, and strongly adnate stipules characteristic of members of subsect. Patellares, to which it belongs. Vegetatively or in cleistogamous fruit is is most often mistaken for other acaulescent uncut-leaved species with leaf blades nearly as broad as to broader than long, such as V. blanda, V. hirsutula, V. incognita, V. septentrionalis, and V. sororia sensu stricto, all of which might or do grow near or with it and which share the spotted or blotched cleistogamous capsule on a prostrate peduncle. When the adnate stipules are ignored, this species differs from V. blanda in lacking stoloniform rhizomes and stolons, its prominent auricles, and larger lighter seeds; from V. incognita in the absence of stoloniform rhizomes and stolons, foliage glabrous except for scattered appressed hairs on the upper surface of the leaf blades, leaf blades widely spreading or prostrate with inner edges of the basal lobes commonly attingent or overlapping in living material and margins shallowly crenate, prominent auricles, and smaller seeds; from V. hirsutula in the leaf blades with inner edges of the basal lobes commonly attingent or overlapping in living material and margins shallowly crenate, their upper surface uniformly dark green, and its prominent auricles; and from V. septentrionalis and V. sororia sensu stricto in its glabrous foliage and peduncle with hairs otherwise restricted to the upper surface of the leaf blades, glabrous eciliate sepals, prominent auricles, and lighter unspotted seeds.

Origin/Endemic status: Native

Synonymy: = C, F, FNA6, G, GrPl, K3, K4, Mi, NE, Pa, Ballard, Kartesz, & Nishino (2023)

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Heliophily: 2