FLORA OF ICELAND elements: Viola tricolor, Wild Pansy

Viola tricolor; The Wild Pansy is the wild ancester of the many garden violet varieties. The name "tricolor" refers to the three different colors in the flowers: (dark)blue, yellow (throat of the flower) and white. This feature distinguishes the species from all othe Icelandic violet species. The shape of the leaves are also very different from other violets. Where other Icelandic violets have either round or more or less elliptic leaves with entire smooth margins, the wild pansy has dentated leaves. Most strikingly though are the large stipules (these are for most plants little bract-like structures where a leafstalk joins the stem, sometimes fused to the bottom of the leafstalks) of the wild pansy which appear to be strongly lobed leaves in their own right. It grows scattered on Iceland in many regions where conditions are relatively mild.
Violaceae - violet family.

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