Viola selkirkii

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Viola selkirkii
Viola selkirkii flower front 1 AB.jpg
Status TNC G5.svg
Secure  (NatureServe)
Scientific classification Red Pencil Icon.png
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Rosids
Order: Malpighiales
Family: Violaceae
Genus: Viola
Species:
V. selkirkii
Binomial name
Viola selkirkii

Viola selkirkii is a species of violet known by the common names Selkirk's violet and great-spur violet. It is native throughout the Northern Hemisphere, its distribution circumboreal. [1] [2] [3]

This species is a rhizomatous perennial herb with hairy, heart-shaped leaves. The flowers are up to 1.5 centimeters wide and are violet in color. They lack the beards that some other violets have. Each flower has a spur up to 7 millimeters long. The fruit is a capsule up to 6 millimeters wide. [1] [3] Flowering occurs between April and July. In some regions this violet may be confused with its relatives, the hookedspur violet (V. adunca) and the common blue violet (V. sororia). Its relatively large spur is a good distinguishing characteristic. [3]

Like some other violets, this species forcefully ejects its mature seeds from the fruit capsules. Ants then pick up the seeds and aid in their dispersal. [4]

The plant occupies many types of moist, shady, cool habitat. In North America it is mostly found in forests. Like many other violets it often grows on rotting wood. It also seems to favor calcareous substrates such as limestone. [3]

While the plant is not rare in general, it is considered to be an imperiled species in some regions, mainly on the periphery of its range, including the US states of Colorado, Connecticut (where it is listed as a special concern species) [5] Montana, Pennsylvania, and South Dakota. [3] In other places it is a common plant. [1]

This plant, which was known at the time only from the vicinity of Montreal, was named by Frederick Traugott Pursh for Thomas Douglas, 5th Earl of Selkirk, who had chosen Pursh to serve as botanist of a proposed expedition to the Red River Colony in what is now Manitoba. [6]

Related Research Articles

<i>Viola</i> (plant) Genus of flowering plants, including violets and pansies, in Eudicot family Violaceae

Viola is a genus of flowering plants in the violet family Violaceae. It is the largest genus in the family, containing between 525 and 600 species. Most species are found in the temperate Northern Hemisphere; however, some are also found in widely divergent areas such as Hawaii, Australasia, and the Andes.

<i>Trillium grandiflorum</i> Species of flowering plant

Trillium grandiflorum is a species of flowering plant in the family Melanthiaceae. A monocotyledonous, herbaceous perennial, the plant is native to eastern North America, from northern Quebec to the southern parts of the United States through the Appalachian Mountains into northernmost Georgia and west to Minnesota. There are also several isolated populations in Nova Scotia, Maine, southern Illinois, and Iowa.

Seed dispersal Movement or transport of seeds away from the parent plant

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Dehiscence (botany)

Dehiscence is the splitting, at maturity, along a built-in line of weakness in a plant structure in order to release its contents, and is common among fruits, anthers and sporangia. Sometimes this involves the complete detachment of a part. Structures that open in this way are said to be dehiscent. Structures that do not open in this way are called indehiscent, and rely on other mechanisms such as decay or predation to release the contents.

<i>Cleome serrulata</i> Species of flowering plant

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Elaiosome Fleshy structures attached to the seeds of plants

Elaiosomes are fleshy structures that are attached to the seeds of many plant species. The elaiosome is rich in lipids and proteins, and may be variously shaped. Many plants have elaiosomes that attract ants, which take the seed to their nest and feed the elaiosome to their larvae. After the larvae have consumed the elaiosome, the ants take the seed to their waste disposal area, which is rich in nutrients from the ant frass and dead bodies, where the seeds germinate. This type of seed dispersal is termed myrmecochory from the Greek "ant" (myrmex) and "circular dance" (khoreíā). This type of symbiotic relationship appears to be mutualistic, more specifically dispersive mutualism according to Ricklefs, R.E. (2001), as the plant benefits because its seeds are dispersed to favorable germination sites, and also because it is planted by the ants.

<i>Ipomoea cairica</i> Species of vine

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<i>Rhododendron catawbiense</i>

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<i>Erythronium americanum</i> Species of flowering plant

Erythronium americanum, the trout lily, yellow trout lily, or yellow dogtooth violet, is a species of perennial, colony forming, spring ephemeral flower native to North America and dwelling in woodland habitats. Within its range it is a very common and widespread species, especially in eastern North America. The common name "trout lily" refers to the appearance of its gray-green leaves mottled with brown or gray, which allegedly resemble the coloring of brook trout.

<i>Sabatia stellaris</i>

Sabatia stellaris, with the common names rose of Plymouth, marsh pink, salt-marsh pink, and sea-pink; is a species of Sabatia. It has the Syn. Sabatia maculata (Benth.) Benth. & Hook.f., Sabatia palmeri Gray, Sabatia purpusii Brandeg., Sabatia simulata Britt.).

<i>Viola cucullata</i> Species of flowering plant

Viola cucullata, the hooded blue violet, marsh blue violet or purple violet, is a species of the genus Viola native to eastern North America, from Newfoundland west to Ontario and Minnesota, and south to Georgia. It is a recipient of the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.

<i>Sapium glandulosum</i> Species of tree

Sapium glandulosum is a species of tree in the family Euphorbiaceae. It is native to the Neotropics from Mexico and the Caribbean south to Argentina, and it has been cultivated elsewhere. It is the most common Sapium species. Its common names include gumtree, milktree, leche de olivo, and olivo macho.

<i>Viola adunca</i> Species of flowering plant

Viola adunca is a species of violet known by the common names hookedspur violet, early blue violet, sand violet, and western dog violet. It is native to meadows and forests of western North America, Canada, and the northern contiguous United States.

<i>Kickxia spuria</i> Species of flowering plant

Kickxia spuria is a species of flowering plant in the family Plantaginaceae known by several common names, including roundleaf cancerwort and round-leaved fluellen. It is native to Europe and Asia, but it is present on other continents as an introduced species, and sometimes a noxious weed. This is a low hairy herb with a creeping stem with many branches. It produces rounded, fuzzy leaves at wide intervals along the stem, and solitary snapdragon-like flowers. Each flower is up to 1.5 centimeters long with a narrow, pointed spur extending from the back. The lobes of the mouth are yellow, white, and deep purple, and the whole flower is fuzzy to hairy. The fruit is a spherical capsule about 4 millimeters long. This species is similar to its relative, Kickxia elatine, but for the shape of its leaves, and the hairy flower stalk, which is bare with Kickxia elatine.

<i>Balsamorhiza sagittata</i> Species of flowering plant

Balsamorhiza sagittata is a North American species of flowering plant in the sunflower tribe of the aster family known by the common name arrowleaf balsamroot. It is widespread across western Canada and much of the western United States. A specimen was collected by explorer and botanist Meriwether Lewis near Lewis and Clark Pass in 1806.

<i>Ceanothus sanguineus</i> Species of flowering plant

Ceanothus sanguineus is a species of shrub in the family Rhamnaceae known by the common name redstem ceanothus. It is native to western North America from British Columbia to Montana to far northern California; it is also known from Michigan. It grows in temperate coniferous forest habitat in forest openings amidst the conifers. This is an erect shrub approaching 3 meters in maximum height. Its stem is red to purple in color, its woody parts green and hairless when new. The deciduous leaves are alternately arranged and up to about 10 centimeters long. They are thin, light green, oval, and generally edged with glandular teeth. The undersides are sometimes hairy. The inflorescence is a cluster of white flowers up to about 12 centimeters long. The fruit is a three-lobed smooth capsule about 4 millimeters long. This shrub is an important food plant for wild ungulates such as the Rocky Mountain Elk, it is browsed eagerly by many types of livestock, and the seed is consumed by many types of animals.

Phacelia affinis is a species of flowering plant in the borage family, Boraginaceae, known by the common names limestone phacelia and purple-bell scorpionweed. It is native to the southwestern United States and Baja California and Sonora in Mexico. It can be found in scrub, woodland, forest, and other habitat.

<i>Galearis rotundifolia</i> Species of orchid

Galearis rotundifolia is a species of flowering plants in the orchid family, Orchidaceae. It is commonly called roundleaf orchis and small round-leaved orchid. It is native to North America, where it occurs throughout Canada, part of the northern United States, and Greenland.

<i>Viola renifolia</i> Species of flowering plant

Viola renifolia is a species of violet known by the common names white violet and kidneyleaf violet. It is native to northern North America, where it has a widespread distribution across Canada and the northern United States as far south as Washington, Colorado, and New York.

<i>Viola abyssinica</i> Species of flowering plant

Viola abyssinica is a low perennial plant with long trailing stems and whitish or light purple flowers with purple markings on the lip, that is assigned to the violet family. In the wild it grows in moist grassland, forest glades and margins, at altitudes between 1200 and 3400 m (3900–11.000 ft), in eastern Africa, from South Africa to Ethiopia, in Cameroun and Nigeria, and on Madagascar and Bioko. Vernacular names are bezongozongo in Madagascar, and dukunsha in Ethiopia.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Viola selkirkii. NatureServe.
  2. "Viola selkirkii". Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN). Agricultural Research Service (ARS), United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Retrieved 21 January 2018.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Hornbeck, J. H., C. H. Sieg, and D. J. Reyher. Conservation Assessment for Great-spurred Violet in the Black Hills National Forest, South Dakota and Wyoming. USFS Rocky Mountain Region. Black Hills National Forest, Custer, SD. April, 2003.
  4. Ohkawara, K. and S. Higashi. (1994). Relative importance of ballistic and ant dispersal in two diplochorous Viola species. Oecologia 100 135–40.
  5. "Connecticut's Endangered, Threatened and Special Concern Species 2015". State of Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection Bureau of Natural Resources. Retrieved 1 February 2018. (Note: This list is newer than the one used by plants.usda.gov and is more up-to-date.)
  6. Joseph Ewan, Frederick Pursh, 1774-1820, and His Botanical Associates, Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, Vol. 96, No. 5 (Oct. 15, 1952), pp. 599–628.