Colorado Plant Database

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EARLY BLUE VIOLET - Viola adunca
IDENTIFICATION
Common Name: EARLY BLUE VIOLET
Family: Violet - Violaceae
Scientific Name: Viola adunca
Meaning of Name: adunca - hooked, referring to the flower spur.
Key Characteristics: leaves pubescent (hairy); leaves seldom clearly cordate (heart-shaped).
Flower Types: bilaterally symmetrical.
Flower Color: purple
Leaf Type: simple (not divided into similar parts).
Mature Height: to 5 inches.
Habitat: meadows, streamsides, aspen groves.

ECOLOGY
Growth Form: herbaceous
Growth Duration: perennial
Angio/Gymnosperm: angiosperm (plant with covered seed).
Monocot/Dicot: dicot (plants with two seed leaves and netted leaf veins).
Life Zone: montane/subalpine.
Frequency: common
Native/Alien: native
Season of Bloom: late spring to late summer (May - Aug.).
Eco Relationships: members of the violet family have evolved 2 types of flowers to ensure pollination: the showy, typical violet flower which offers both nectar and pollen to attract insects and cleistogomous flowers produced after the regular flowers, which never open at all and are self-fertilized; cleistogamy is a permanent "back up" system which ensures progeny even if weather or low insect populations cause failure of the primary insect pollination strategy; plants in this genus are host plants for various species of Fritillary butterflies.

HUMAN USES

LANDSCAPING

WEED MANAGEMENT

Version: 2.3.0      Release Date: Jan 2009       ©2009 Jefferson County ITS

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