Loading AI tools
Species of flowering plant From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Viola hederacea, the Australian violet, is a species of flowering plant in the family Violaceae, native to Australia.
| Australian violet | |
|---|---|
| |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Eudicots |
| Clade: | Rosids |
| Order: | Malpighiales |
| Family: | Violaceae |
| Genus: | Viola |
| Species: | V. hederacea |
| Binomial name | |
| Viola hederacea Labill. | |
The Latin specific epithet hederacea means "like ivy", referring to the leaves which resemble the leaves of Hedera species (which are not closely related).[1]
The flowers are usually rather pale and washed-out looking, the anterior petal (the one at the bottom of the flower when looking face on, is widest towards its apex, and the mature seeds are brown. Well-developed leaves of Viola hederacea are also distinctive – semicircular in outline, about as broad as long, and usually rather dark green above and paler beneath.
This small herbaceous perennial is common and widespread in Victoria and Tasmania, along the Great Dividing Range in New South Wales north at least to the Barrington Tops area, in the far south-east of South Australia, and in a small area of the Adelaide Hills between Belair and Mount Lofty.
True Viola hederacea is infrequently grown in gardens. It is a less spectacular plant than the cultivated species Viola banksii, with a more open, less robust habit and less striking flowers. Nevertheless, it is easy to cultivate.
Most ornamental cultivars labelled as Viola hederacea are actually Viola banksii, which was until recently included within V. hederacea[2] but differs in the more richly coloured flowers with an almost circular anterior petal and almost circular leaves with a deep sinus (V. hederacea has paler flowers with an obovate anterior petal and more or less reniform leaves with a broad sinus).[3]
Seamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.
Every time you click a link to Wikipedia, Wiktionary or Wikiquote in your browser's search results, it will show the modern Wikiwand interface.
Wikiwand extension is a five stars, simple, with minimum permission required to keep your browsing private, safe and transparent.
