Viola palmata, the trilobed violet, early blue violet, or wood violet (names it shares with other members of its genus), is a species of flowering plant in the family Violaceae.[1] Viola palmata is native to southeastern Canada as well as the eastern half of the United States.[2] [3] Often confused with Viola triloba, V. palmata is a member of a class familiarly known as "blue stemless violets"; characterized by its cleistogamous flowers on short prostrate peduncles, and often concealed under dead leaves or soil.[4]
Viola palmata is a perennial with an acaulescent stem.[5] It has basal, ascending to erect leaves, with entire margins and an acute apex. The basal leaves are glabrous to pubescent, with the earliest leaves unlobed and the midseason leaves having 3-9 lobes. Usually midseason blades are elliptic, ovate, lanceolate, spatulate, obdeltate, or falcate. Viola palmata
Viola palmata was first described by Linnaeus in Species Plantarum on May 1st 1753.[8] [9] Nomenclature and typification have been problematic. Viola palmata is commonly confused with V. subsinuata but their homophylly and heterophylly tendencies differentiates them. N. L. Gil-Ad (1997) presented evidence based on seed coat micromorphology that some plants known as Viola palmata are hybrids between plants with lobed and unlobed leaves and believed the type specimen to be hybrid in origin. Gil-Ad chose not to recognize the name V. palmata, choosing instead to recognize V. triloba. However, most botanist believe that this conclusion was drawn from an impure type-specimen and recognize Viola palmata as the appropriate name for this taxon.[10] V. triloba and V. palmata can be differentiated by the cut of their leaves; in the palmata subgroup uncut leaves are very rare, while in the triloba subgroup they frequently occur.[11] Notably in the palmata group leaves are palmately cut, while in the triloba group leaves are cut pedatley.[12] Another common misnomer for V. palmata is the palmata, var. dilatata of Elliott; Elliot described a violet appearing common to Northern Georgia and the carolinas, but this variety has been dismissed by botanists due to its similarity to other previously described species in the genus.
The Japanese name for Viola palmata is Kuwagatasumire (クワガタミレ, 鍬形菫).[13] The Korean name for V. palmata is Chang-won-je-bi-kkot (창원제비꽃) and is based off of the location at which it was initially collected in Korea.[14]