The open plant encyclopedia
Snap a photo or search by any name to see how to care for it, where it comes from, whether it's safe, and a 3D model you can turn.
The plants people record most in your country, and ones that grow there wild.
Filter by what you want to do, shape, origin, country, care and safety.
Viola sororia
Also called Downy Blue Violet, Woolly Blue Violet, Bayou Violet, Blue Praire Violet, Dooryard Violet, Sister Violet, Violet
Common blue violet is a low, short-stemmed perennial native to eastern North America that spreads by self-seeding in lawns and shady beds. It does best in moist, rich, well-drained soil in partial shade.
Viola sororia ( vy-OH-lə sə-ROR-ee-ə), known commonly as the common blue violet, is a short-stemmed herbaceous perennial plant native to eastern North America. It is known by a number of common names, including common meadow violet, purple violet, woolly blue violet, hooded violet, and wood violet.
This perennial plant is distributed in the eastern half of the United States, Canada, and a part of eastern Mexico. Its native habitats are rich, moist woods, and swamps located in the eastern half of the United States and Canada. Its cultivar 'Albiflora' has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.
Viola sororia leaves and flowers are edible in moderation and also safe to plant around pets.
Viola sororia is found primarily in forests and is interfertile, meaning it is likely and able to breed with other closely related Viola species. The species grows on forest floors and can adapt to sunny or partly shady conditions. The leaves develop in the early spring when the surrounding tree crowns are not fully closed. When the forest canopy closes, the leaves continue to grow and develop. Soils preferred by V. sororia are moist, rich, and well drained.
Beyond its use as a common lawn and garden plant, Viola sororia has historically been used for food and for medicine. Hildegard of Bingen proposed using it as a treatment for depression. The English herbalist, John Gerard, described applications for violet as, "It has power to ease inflammation, roughness of the throat and comforteth the heart, assumageth the pains of the head, and causeth sleep." The flowers and leaves are edible, but the roots are not edible. The Cherokee have used it to treat colds and headaches. Rafinesque, in his Medical Flora, a Manual of the Medical Botany of the United States of North America (1828–1830), wrote of Viola sororia being used by his American contemporaries for coughs, sore throats, and constipation.
Hookedspur violet · Field Pansy · Australian Native Violet · Viola betonicifolia · Canadian white violet · Horned Pansy · Viola cotyledon · Marsh blue violet · Stately Violet · Dwarf marsh violet · Pioneer violet · Alpine violet
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Viola sororia 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.
