The broken flower color may be peculiar to this seedling. It would not be characteristic of a wild species growing within its natural range. The rest of the plant's features would be - if it is, in fact a native violet and not a garden escape or a relict of an earlier home site.

It's Viola x palmata. Plantfiles lists no cultivars so you'll have to name it.

Guess you know the next question, lol! What can I send you for a start of it? :)

Jeanne

It's Viola x palmata. Plantfiles lists no cultivars so you'll have to name it.
Ok, you lost me Jeanne. Are you maybe saying it is a cross made by nature, Thus it is a new variety? I'm clueless. How does one go about getting it named officially, or do they?...and where?
There was a house somewhere here on the corner property, as there is an old well laid up with creek rock (I believe it is).

I'll email you to talk 'starts' and trading.

Sue

Like bboy said, this is probably a chance seedling that you luckily stumbled across. I was kind of kidding about naming it, I found a variegate leafed Violet last year but as soon as I potted it up it reverted right back to all green. You'd have to make sure your Viola was stable and find a more comprehensive listing of Violas to make sure there really was no cultivars known. Carol knows alot about Violas, perhaps she'll chime in here.

I've never formally named a plant although I have lots of Hosta seedlings that I give informal names to, just to keep myself organized in notes and such. So I can't help you there.

That said, I love the leaf form. The bloom color is just icing on the cake!

I sent email. :)

Jeanne

A friend of mine has similar violets in her garden. I figured it was a strange gene anomoly specific to her soil type and crossed between the white and purple varieties. Some of hers are spotted too. Couldn't say for certain that the seeds would produce the same result.

A common spotted one is 'Freckles'. However, this tends to have fine dots rather than the pattern yours is showing. But not all plants of that cultivar may always produce finely dotted flowers. You can find many photos and descriptions of 'Freckles' on the internet by searching "viola freckles".

The folks over on the Violet forum would love to see this.

There are many violets with streaked color, I'm not sure about their genetics but I have seen them in books. I assume some are crosses and some are mutations from solid colored violets.

There is some breeding work going on to mix pansies with wild violets to increase the heat tolerance of pansies (to make them more like a standard perennial). I assume most of this work is being done in England because they are often referred to as 'English Violas'. A very popular form is streaked blue and white but the flowers are wider and flat faced more like a pansy.

>I assume most of this work is being done in England because they are often referred to as 'English Violas'. A very popular form is streaked blue and white but the flowers are wider and flat faced more like a pansyThese latter may be Viola cornuta hybrids that have been around for some time.