BIRD-FOOT VIOLET (Crowfoot Violet) 



Viola pedata L. 



April - May Where the prairie hills lie like supine animals 



Prairie hills, upon whose long forms the ruddy prairie grass 



sandy woods, rocks blows like fur, the bird-foot violets bloom in 



spring. They are creatures of spring winds and 

 the dry loess hills, of sandhills and clay slopes, of rocky places in sunny 

 woods, of sunny places among the black jack oaks and red cedars. Com- 

 pact and low, the little plants grow from tough prairie soil and produce 

 blossoms which are super violets. The flowers are larger than those of 

 ordinary violets and the little plants are much smaller. This tends to 

 exaggerate them, to make them more akin to cultivated plants than to 

 the wild, which so often isi more prodigal in the size of its leaves than 

 its flowers. 



The bird-foot violet is a pale sky-blue-lavender with an orange pistil 

 tipped with pale green, protruding from the beardless center of the 

 flower. The oblong petals spread wide. The leaves are on short stems 

 and are so deeply cut into narrow lobes that they appear almost com- 

 pound. They may be only the size of a fifty-cent piece, cut deeply to the 

 veiy center where the stem springs. 



One variety of the bird-foot violet th;it is coiuiiKin in Illinois is 

 often called variety ooncolor in contrast to the riircr one having the 

 two upper dark pur})le and the three lower lilac-purple. This is often 

 termed variety hicolor. Occasionally a white-flowered one is found which 

 may be called variety alba 



Gl 



