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Pansy

Viola ×wittrockiana

Also called Garden Pansy, Hybrid Violet

Pansy
Photo: Osnat Ravid Amir, CC BY-SA 4.0

The garden pansy is a large-flowered hybrid cultivated as a bedding flower, derived mainly from the wild heartsease (Viola tricolor). It is grown for its colourful, velvety blooms in cool seasons.

Family
Violaceae (Violet family)
Light
Full sun
Water
Keep soil evenly moist and water at the base; the plant likes moisture.
Soil
Fertile, well-drained, moisture-retentive soil rich in organic matter.
Temperature
10–18 °C is ideal; tolerates light frost, protect below -5 °C.
How easy
Easy
Safety
Not known to be toxic

About

The garden pansy (Viola × wittrockiana) is a type of polychromatic large-flowered hybrid plant cultivated as a garden flower. It is derived by hybridization from several species in the section Melanium ("the pansies") of the genus Viola, particularly V. tricolor, a wildflower of Europe and western Asia known as heartsease. It is sometimes known as V. tricolor var. hortensis, but this scientific name is suspect. While V. tricolor var. hortensis Groenland & Rümpler is a synonym of Viola × wittrockiana, V. tricolor var. hortensis DC. refers to a horticultural variety of wild pansy (V. tricolor without interspecific hybridization) that had been illustrated in Flora Danica in 1777 before the existence of Viola × wittrockiana.

The chromosome number of Viola × wittrockiana is 2n = 44–52, with most cultivars being 2n = 48.

Other Viola plants

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 Pansy 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.

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