Violets are one of our most common spring flowers, popping up everywhere from city lawns to woodland trails. They are also among our most beautiful flowers, and the only excuse we need for more pictures of violets is that there are more violets. Here is an assortment of Common Blue Violets in various shades from canonical violet to nearly white; they were blooming in the middle of April in Bird Park (Mount Lebanon) and Seldom Seen (Pittsburgh).
Common Blue Violets normally bloom in a narrow range of shades from deep violet to deep purple. We do, however, sometimes find flowers in a range of shades from pale lavender to pure white, as well as flowers with white flecks. Most of these flowers were blooming in a lawn in Highland Park among a large population of the regulation violet-colored violets.
Photograohed May 2.
This one was blooming near Saw Mill Run in Seldom Seen.
It is possible that some of these plants are other closely related species, or even hybrids. Botanists themselves have trouble sorting violets: Viola papilionacea, for example, was commonly regarded as a separate species from V. sororia (though Gray said that V. sororia “passes into” V. papilionacea) but is now subsumed by its sister, which is called “sororia” (“sisterly”) precisely because it looks so much like some other species in the genus. In addition, Fernald’s revision of Gray’s Manual of Botany lists eleven other species with which Viola sororia hybridizes. At that point, Father Pitt gives up and simply says these are probably the same species, but corrections from botanists with better eyes are welcome.
Blooming in a lawn in Highland Park. Some homeowners apparently consider violets an infestation and pay good money to get rid of them. We speak words of encouragement to the violets whenever we see them.
Photographed April 18 with a Fujifilm FinePix HS10.
Although violet is the usual color of Viola sororia, a white form sometimes appears. This one was growing between the bricks of a sidewalk in Allegheny West.
Photographed April 17 with a Konica Minolta DiMAGE Z6.
The fact that they are so common as to be nearly ubiquitous does not make these violets any less delightful. Here we see them blooming in the Seldom Seen Greenway near Saw Mill Run.
