OVATE-LEAVED VIOLET 



Viola Ambriatula Sm. 



April - May AVlion late April brings new loaves like cut-out. pink and 

 Hilly woods white velvet on the oak trees, and when on the dry clay 

 hills of the oak woods the trout lilies are out of bloom, 

 there may come the neat ]jlants of ovate-leaved violets with their purple 

 ilowers. 



These are conii)act violet j)lants: the connnon l)lue violet is some- 

 times untidy in apjK'.iranie. hushy iind leafy in contrast. The ovate-leaved 

 violet's leaves are nairow, neatly scalloped, on stems which often are 

 short enough to permit the flower stems to stand well above them. Here 

 above the si)ade-slia])efl, dark green loaves are ])right ])ur})le violets. They 

 are broader than tlie lonunon violet's ilowers, usually are a brighter, 

 clearer pur]»le, and there is less white fur near the center of the llowcr 

 than is found in many other violets in Illinois. 



The ovate-leaved violet is one of those uncommon six>cies which fre- 

 (piently is overlooked simjjly because to mnny ryes a violet is a violet, 

 regardless of sj)ecies. It hai»i)ens that in the eastern states aJone there 

 are forty-five species of violets, as listed in draifs Ma mini of Botany. In 

 the west there are many more. In each species, the Ilowers almost all 

 boar the typical violet shape — two petals above, two at the side, a 

 trough-shajHHl petal at the bottom, a short, .<ac-like tube at the back where 

 the nectar lies, and a small yellow aj)crture in the center of the flower 

 where insects probe for nectar. The colors of violets vary from white to 

 yellow and from pale lavender to deep jnirjjle. 



G4 



