Viola cunninghamii | |
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Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Plantae |
Clade: | Tracheophytes |
Clade: | Angiosperms |
Clade: | Eudicots |
Clade: | Rosids |
Order: | Malpighiales |
Family: | Violaceae |
Genus: | Viola |
Species: | V. cunninghamii |
Binomial name | |
Viola cunninghamii | |
Synonyms | |
List
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Viola cunninghamii, also known as the white mountain viola, is a species of flowering plant within the genus Viola and family Violaceae. [1]
Viola cunninghamii is a perennial herb known for its slender and branching rhizome. The plant forms a cluster of leaves in a tufted rosette pattern. The leaf blades are generally triangular-ovate to sub-orbicular, measuring between 10 and 20 mm in diameter. The edges of the leaves have slightly indistinct, crenate margins, and their stalks are longer than the blade itself. [2]
The flowers of Viola cunninghamii emerge singularly on elongated stalks that surpass the length of the leaves. These delicate flowers showcase shades of white or pale violet, with a length of about 6 to 10 mm. Notably, the rear petal of the flower features a short, blunt spur. The flowering period typically occurs between the months of November and February. The fruit of this herb takes the form of a capsule that splits open into three valves when matured. [2] The species has a chromosome count of 2n = 48. [3]
When distinguishing Viola cunninghamii from other Viola species in Tasmania, certain defining characteristics of this species can be identified. The presence of rhizomes distinguishes it as a rhizomatous species. Additionally, the spurred anterior petal, rather than just a pouched one, sets it apart. Furthermore, the leaves of Viola cunninghamii are rounded, contrasting with the lanceolate or oblong leaves found in other similar species. [2]
Viola cunninghamii possesses a widespread Oceanic distribution, where it can be found in New Zealand, Tasmania and the Chatham Islands. [4] The species inhabits elevated mountain habitats such as alpine herbfields, grasslands, and grassy heaths. [2]
Aquilegia is a genus of about 60–70 species of perennial plants that are found in meadows, woodlands, and at higher altitudes throughout the Northern Hemisphere, known for the spurred petals of their flowers.
Caltha is a genus of rhizomatous perennial flowering plants in the family Ranunculaceae, to which ten species have been assigned. They occur in moist environments in temperate and cold regions of both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. Their leaves are generally heart-shaped or kidney-shaped, or are characteristically diplophyllous. Flowers are star shaped and mostly yellow to white. True petals and nectaries are missing but the five or more sepals are distinctly colored. As usual in the buttercup family there is a circle of stamens around free carpels.
Maianthemum canadense is an understory perennial flowering plant, native to Canada and the northeastern United States, from Yukon and British Columbia east to Newfoundland, into St. Pierre and Miquelon. It can be found growing in both coniferous and deciduous forests. The plant appears in two forms, either as a single leaf rising from the ground with no fruiting structures or as a flowering/fruiting stem with two to three leaves. Flowering shoots have clusters of 12–25 starry-shaped, white flowers held above the leaves.
Blandfordia, commonly known as Christmas bells, is a genus of four species of flowering plants native to eastern Australia. Christmas bells are tufted, perennial herbs with narrow, linear leaves and up to twenty large, drooping, cylindrical or bell-shaped flowers.
Dendrobium cunninghamii, commonly known as winika, pekapeka, Christmas orchid, bamboo orchid or ladies slipper orchid, is a species of epiphytic orchids that is endemic to New Zealand. It is commonly found growing in rainforest in the North, South, Stewart and Chatham Islands and normally flowers in summer and early autumn.
Eurybia divaricata, the white wood aster, is an herbaceous plant native to eastern North America. It occurs in the eastern United States, primarily in the Appalachian Mountains, though it is also present in southeastern Canada, but only in about 25 populations in the provinces of Ontario and Quebec. In the U.S. it is abundant and common, but in Canada it is considered threatened due to its restricted distribution. It has been introduced to a number of countries in Europe. It can be found in dry open woods as well as along wood-edges and clearings. The species is distinguished by its flower heads that have yellow centers and white rays that are arranged in flat-topped corymbiform arrays, emerging in the late summer through fall. Other distinguishing characteristics include its serpentine stems and sharply serrated narrow heart-shaped leaves. The white wood aster is sometimes used in cultivation in both North America and Europe due to it being quite tough and for its showy flowers.
Verticordia cunninghamii, commonly known as tree featherflower or liandu, is a flowering plant in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae and is endemic to an area in the extreme north of Western Australia and the Northern Territory. It is a spindly shrub or small tree with narrow leaves and cream to white, sweetly scented, feathery flowers.
Curculigo capitulata is a stout herb that belongs to the genus Curculigo. It is known by the common names palm grass, whale back, and weevil lily, and by various synonyms, including Molineria capitulata. It ranges from the Himalayas and eastern India through Indochina, southern China, Malesia, and New Guinea to Queensland and the Solomon Islands. The plant has yellow flowers and oblong, papery pleated leaves with very short stems. In China and India, the plant has traditional uses as medicine to treat diseases such as hemorrhoids, asthma, and consumptive cough. In Southeast Asia, the plant is also used as food wrapping and the fibres are used to make fishing nets, ropes and false hair. However, in recent years Molineria capitulata is more often used as ornamental plants in gardens. In recent studies, M. capitulata was also found to have potential in treating several chronic diseases due to its high antifungal, antioxidant, cytotoxic, thrombolytic, anti-inflammatory, and analgesic activities.
Fumaria muralis, known as common ramping-fumitory or wall fumitory, is a flowering herbaceous plant in the poppy family (Papaveraceae) native to western Europe and northwestern Africa.
Adenochilus, commonly known as gnome orchids is a genus of two species of flowering plants in the orchid family Orchidaceae, one endemic to New Zealand and the other to Australia. Both species have a long, horizontal, underground rhizome with a single leaf on the flowering stem and a single resupinate flower with its dorsal sepal forming a hood over the labellum and column.
Pinguicula elizabethiae is a perennial rosette-forming insectivorous herb native to the Mexican states of Querétaro and Hidalgo. A species of butterwort, it forms summer rosettes of flat, succulent leaves up to 5 centimeters (4 in) long, which are covered in mucilaginous (sticky) glands that attract, trap, and digest arthropod prey. Nutrients derived from the prey are used to supplement the nutrient-poor substrate that the plant grows in. In the winter the plant forms a non-carnivorous rosette of small, fleshy leaves that conserves energy while food and moisture supplies are low. Single purple flowers appear between July and October on upright stalks up to 75 millimeters long.
Roscoea kunmingensis is a perennial herbaceous plant native to the mountains of China, being found in Yunnan. Most members of the ginger family (Zingiberaceae), to which it belongs, are tropical, but R. kunmingensis, like other species of Roscoea, grows in much colder mountainous regions.
Roscoea cangshanensis is a perennial herbaceous plant native to the mountains of China, being found in Yunnan. Most members of the ginger family (Zingiberaceae), to which it belongs, are tropical, but R. canshanensis, like other species of Roscoea, grows in much colder mountainous regions.
Corydalis micrantha is a species of flowering plant in the poppy family (Papaveraceae), native to the United States. Common names include smallflower fumewort, southern corydalis, and golden corydalis.
Ranunculus pinguis is a dark green, fleshy-leaved buttercup with relatively large, short-stalked flowers and narrow stiff yellow petals that grows in tufts. It is an endemic species of New Zealand on the Auckland and Campbell Islands that flowers from December to January and sets seeds between February and April.
Blandfordia cunninghamii is one of four species of flowering plant commonly known as Christmas bells. It is a tufted, perennial herb endemic to the Blue Mountains and Illawarra regions of eastern Australia. It has long, narrow, linear leaves and between twelve and thirty large, drooping, cylindrical to bell-shaped red flowers with yellow tips.
Caltha obtusa; commonly known as white caltha; is a small, perennial herbaceous plant belonging to the family Ranunculaceae, that grows in open vegetations in mountainous areas, and is endemic to New Zealand's South Island.
Pelargonium coronopifolium is a subshrub of up to 40 cm high. It has green to slightly greyish, linear to narrowly elliptical leaves often with irregular teeth towards the tip and white to purple flowers in groups of one to four. It can be found in the Western Cape province of South Africa. Old publications suggested the name buck's horn plantain-leaved stork's bill, but this name never gained common use.
Myosotis albosericea is a species of flowering plant in the family Boraginaceae, endemic to the South Island of New Zealand. Joseph Dalton Hooker described the species in 1867. Plants of this species of forget-me-not are perennial rosettes which form loose clumps, with ebracteate, erect inflorescences, and yellow corollas.
Diplaspis cordifolia is an endemic Tasmanian herb, known commonly as western mountain-pennywort. It is found in alpine vegetation communities across Tasmania, most commonly in the West and South-western areas.