Colorado Plant Database
| IDENTIFICATION |
| Common Name: |
NUTTALL VIOLET |
| Family: |
Violet - Violaceae |
| Scientific Name: |
Viola nuttallii |
| Meaning of Name: |
for Thomas Nuttall, 19th century English botanist, Harvard professor and western explorer. |
| Key Characteristics: |
leaves narrowly lanceolate (lance-shaped) or lance-elliptic (oval), at least 3 times long as wide. |
| Flower Types: |
bilaterally symmetrical. |
| Flower Color: |
yellow |
| Leaf Type: |
simple (not divided into similar parts). |
| Mature Height: |
to 20 inches. |
| Habitat: |
meadows, open slopes, often blooming in the protection of rocks at 5,000 to 11,500 feet elevation. |
| IMAGE |
 |
| 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: |
plains to montane. |
| Frequency: |
common |
| Native/Alien: |
native |
| Season of Bloom: |
spring to mid-summer (Mar. - Jul.). |
| Eco Relationships: |
pollinated by bumblebees, seeds utilized by birds and small mammals, foliage grazed; 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; host plant for Edwards' Fritillary butterfly, a 2 - 3 inch orange butterfly, with greenish lower hindwing with silver spots; greenish coloration is protective when resting in grasses; also one of host plants for the Aphrodite butterfly, a 2 to 3 inch orange butterfly with silver spots on the tawny underside of the hindwing; female lays eggs in fall under mountain mahogany, long after Nuttal violets have withered and disappeared; females may smell violets' dormant roots. |
| Comments: |
flowers in this family are characterized by bilateral symmetry and a spurred petal. |
| LANDSCAPING |
| Landscaping Use: |
ground cover, rocky gardens, shade gardens. |
| Light Requirement: |
open to shaded. |
Version: 2.3.0 Release Date: Jan 2009 ©2009 Jefferson County ITS
