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Viola calaminaria
Also called Yellow calamine violet
A zinc-tolerant violet native to the old mine tailings around Kelmis in Belgium and nearby areas of Germany and the Netherlands. It is grown for its ability to thrive on metal-rich soils, and it is not a common garden plant.
Viola lutea subsp. calaminaria (synonym Viola calaminaria) is a subspecies of V. lutea, in the violet family, the Violaceae. The plant occurs from Kelmis (La Calamine in French) in the Belgian province of Liège across the borders to Germany and the Netherlands. The plant has adapted to an excess of zinc in the tailings of a former mine, the heaps of stone left over after separating the valuable fraction from the ore. By evolving the ability to cope with the toxic heavy metal pollution, this violet has gained an advantage over the other plants in the ecosystem, as is able to become the locally dominant floral component of such habitats.
The violet is also found along the Geul, near Epen, where it just reaches the Dutch border. The zinc in the area along the Geul comes from the zinc mines that were exploited in Belgium between 1860 and the beginning of the twentieth century. There are still zinc-containing slag on the old mining site between Blieberg and Moresnet. In Kelmis there are also still zinc-containing rocks left over from mining.
Viola abbreviata · Viola abyssinica · Hookedspur violet · White Violet · Viola angustifolia · Field Pansy · Australian Native Violet · Viola betonicifolia · Canadian white violet · Horned Pansy · Viola cotyledon · Marsh blue violet
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Viola lutea subsp. calaminaria 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.
