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Exacum affine
Also called German Violet, Tiddly Winks
Persian violet (Exacum affine) is a small annual or biennial with dark green leaves and fragrant purple flowers with yellow centres, grown mostly as a bright flowering pot plant. It needs warmth, bright light and careful watering to keep flowering well.
Exacum affine, known commercially as the Persian violet, is a species of plant in the family Gentianaceae. It is endemic to Socotra, part of Yemen, though its popularity and cultivation around the world have made it an occasional greenhouse weed. Its natural habitat is rocky areas. This is a small herbaceous biennial plant with dark green, ovate leaves. The small purple flowers have a yellow centre with fragrance.
In the UK, Exacum affine has won the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit. This tender annual or biennial plant is sown in heat in early spring, and planted out when all danger of frost has passed (May or June, depending on the location).
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Exacum affine by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
Pet safety from the ASPCA toxic and non-toxic plant lists.
