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Viola riviniana
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Division:	Magnoliophyta
Class:	Magnoliopsida
Order:	Malpighiales
Family:	Violaceae
Genus:	Viola
Species:	V. riviniana
Binomial name
Viola riviniana

Common Dog-violet (Viola riviniana) is a species of the genus Viola. It is also called wood violet or dog violet. It is a perennial herb of woodland rides, grassland and shady hedge banks. It is found in all soils except acid or very wet.

It is a perennial, which flowers from April to June.

Its leaves are heart shaped with rounded teeth and are usually hairless. It has 2 slender bracts, 6 sepals spear shaped lobed at the base, 5 overlapping petals with a backward pointing spur. Once the flower has been fertilised, the spur will split into 3 to reveal the egg shaped seeds - see Viola description.

Toothed stipules can be found at the base of the plant.

Name

The name 'Dog' - probably suggests that this plant was thought to be inferior to the scented violet (viola odorata), which was particularly favoured during the Victorian Era.

Wildlife value

It is the foodplant of the Pearl bordered fritillary, Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary and High Brown Fritillary butterfly.

Similar species

• Sweet Violet Viola odorata - sweetly scented and has all the leaves at the base of the plant, the stipules are gland tipped
• Heath Dog Violet Viola canina - has clear blue flowers, narrower leaves and smaller teeth on the stipules
• Marsh Violet Viola palustris - found in wet places, leaves are kidney shaped which come from underground creeping stems, and the flowers are dark-veined. The stipules have no teeth at all.

Note that pansies are also of the Viola Genus.

Hybrids

This species hybridises with Early Dog-violet (V. reichenbachiana) to produce Viola × bavarica.

Images

Whole plant	Viola riviniana	Viola riviniana	Viola riviniana white spur
Viola riviniana	Viola riviniana, whole plant, found in Chemnitz, Germany
	Seed pods from self-pollinated flowers	Viola riviniana	Viola riviniana, whole plant, found in Kerava, Finland

Further reading

Identification

• Partridge, James (2007) Viola × bavarica: the punctual Dog-violet BSBI News 106:8-9 (illustrated with colour photographs on inside back cover of this edition)

External links

• Media related to Viola riviniana at Wikimedia Commons