Viola suavis subsp. naqshii - Purple-Spur Violet

Purple-Spur Violet is an almost stemless perennial herb, with rhizome creeping, brownish, branched with branch-end leaf rosettes and lateral runners. It is named in honour of late Dr. A. R. Naqshi, a well-known plant taxonomist of Kashmir Himalaya. Flowers are white with a purplish spur, borne singly in leaf axils, 2.0-2.5 cm in diameter. Petals are white, almost equal, spreading, obovate with apical notch, upper petal 1.1-1.5 x 0.5-0.8 cm; lateral petals 1.3-1.5 x 0.6-0.8 cm with sparsely, rather long hyaline hairs at the throat; lower petal spurred, 1.5-2.0 x 0.6-0.9 cm including spur; spur dark purplish, curved, 3.5-4 mm long; stamens 5, filaments short, anthers bilobed. Sepals are nearly equal, persistent, ovate-oblong, 3.5-5 x 1.8-2.5 mm, margins scarious, tips blunt. Flower-cluster-stalks are 4.5-10 cm long, light green, usually hairless; bracteoles in the lower third of the flower-cluster-stalk, 1-1.5 mm long, prominent with gland-tipped fimbriae. Leaf-stalks are hairy, slender, 4-10 cm long; leaves simple, arising from root, blade ovate-heart-shaped, 3-5.5 x 3-4 cm, broader in the lower third, velvet-hairy with short hairs, hairs up to 0.3 mm long; leaf base heart-shaped, margin rounded toothed, tips blunt; stipules lanceshaped to broadly lanceshaped, 1.2-1.5 x 0.2-0.4 cm, pale white, margin fringed, tips tapering. Capsule is spherical, 5.5-6.5 x 4.5-5.5 mm, densely hairy. Purple-Spur Violet is found in Kashmir, in gardens, under tree canopy and open fields. It produces reproductive offsprings, often in very large numbers, at considerable distances from parent plants and thus have the potential to spread over a considerable area in future as well. Flowering: March-April.