Viola adunca
 
Early Blue Violet

Flower Cut Open

Good Spirit Lake Provincial Park
19-May-2012

All of the corolla except the spur of the anterior petal have been removed from this flower.  That spur has been cut open to reveal the nectaries which it encloses.

Adunca: Answers to key questions in Budd's Flora and Flora of Alberta leading to this species. 

plants perennial; NOT [plants annual]

plants with well-developed leafy stems; NOT [plants lacking stems, the leaves and peduncles arising from a caudex or stolons]

stipules bract-like, much smaller than the leaf blades; NOT [stipules leaf-like, large, about the same length as the leaf blades]

stipules toothed; NOT [stipules entire], NOT [stipules laciniate at base]

flowers axillary

flowers deep violet to purple to whitish blue; NOT [flowers white to pale violet to mauve], NOT [flowers yellow]

 

Violaceae: Answers to key questions in Budd's Flora leading to this family. 

herbs; NOT [shrubs or trees]

plants terrestrial or semiaquatic; NOT [plants aquatic, leaves submerged or floating]

plants NOT with colored milky juice

plants with more than one normal leaf

some or all leaves alternate; NOT [leaves opposite, whorled or basal]

leaves with stipules; NOT [leaves without stipules, or having glands]

flowers with two floral rings, and with each petal distinct from the others

flowers irregular in shape; NOT [flowers regular in shape]

calyx regular; NOT [calyx irregular, some sepals smaller than others]

corolla with one petal spurred or sac-like; NOT [corolla pea-like]

stamens usually separate or partly so, not in a column; NOT [stamens numerous, united into a column]

fruit a 3-valved capsule; NOT [fruit a legume]