A smooth low plant with leaves and blue or purple to white flowers on separate stalks.

1/2-3/4" wide; petals 5, sometimes white with purple veins, lateral ones bearded, lower petal longer and spurred

To 5" wide, heart-shaped, with scalloped edges.

Capsule.

3-8".

March-June.

Damp woods, moist meadows, lawns, and roadsides.

Many Violets also produce flowers near the ground that fail to open but nevertheless produce vast quantities of seeds. Violet leaves are high in vitamin A and C and can be used in salads or cooked as greens. The flowers can be candied. Marsh Blue Violet (V.cucullata), a similar with dark blue centers borne well above the leaves; it occurs from Ontario east to Newfoundland and south to Georgia and Arkansas.