White violets

This is the right time of the year to look for small violets. Normally they are blue, but sometimes you find white ones. Yes, this happens, sometimes a Sweet violet has flowers that are white instead of blue (see also Spring violets). But the plant here below grows on dry and loamy soil, in the midst of a not frequently used track in a hornbeam-oak forest. It is the typical habitat of another species, the White Violet (Viola alba).


Small morphological details also show it is a species on its own. But you need a magnifying glass to see them.

Two metres away on the same track grows a variety of the White Violet with darker leaves and a purple spur. Let us call it the Dark-leaved Violet (Viola alba ssp scotophylla).












In the foreground you notice some purple-veined leaves of last year. Under the flower new leaves are developing.