Leaves and scapes 2 to 4 inches high from a slender rootstock or stolon. Leaf blades thin, crenate margined, ovate to suborbicular, deeply heart-shaped, the basal lobes converging or overlapping; leaves small at flowering time, when mature 1 to 2 ½ inches wide, smooth except for minute, spreading hairs on the upper surface of the leaves. Flowers pale violet, not bearded, the spur 2½ to 4 lines long and much enlarged toward the rounded end.

In shaded ravines and cool mountain forests, New Brunswick to Pennsylvania and Minnesota, north to Greenland. In central New York its favorite habitat is the moss-covered rocks and boulders beneath limestone cliffs and shaded by dense forests of mixed hardwoods and hemlock. Flowering in April and May.

Memoir 15 N. Y. State Museum

Plate 139

A. Great-Spurred Or Selkirk's Violet - Viola selkirkii