Viola sororia f. priceana

There have been several other postings on this and closely related violets on this forum recently. Must be that time of year.

They're not sweet violets, by the way.
In general sweet violet' refers to Viola odorata, or in North America it is often used to refer to V. blanda.

Hi, I've been following these nomenclature discussions with interest. I too have the white violets with purple veining, but a comparison of the following pictures reveals that mine are Viola striata, not sororia priceana. They are rather similar.

http://www.toadshade.com/ViolaSt.html
http://www.toadshade.com/ViolaSo_im1.html

Also, this compilation refers to the common American blue violet as Viola papilionacea. I wonder if this is a pseudonym, or if papilionacea is the common blue violet of America while sororia is common elsewhere. The ones in this picture look identical to mine.

http://www.toadshade.com/ViolaPa_im2.html

The following is a link to a page which indicates that papilionacea and striata are used interchangeably.

It also shows a striated white form of sororia/papilionacea.

No need to make things too simple!

Here is a link that might be useful: sororia/papilionacea

Nope, this is where I saw the striated white form, here identified as Viola papilionacea f. albiflora.

Here is a link that might be useful: Viola papilionacea

Hi Sharon,

Let me try to clarify...
These points are intended for general viewing; they are not just responses to your postings.

Viola papilionacea is a defunct name, though it still crops up fairly often, probably due to folks referring to older reference material, or to other folks who did so... Use V. sororia instead.

Priceana is a form of V. sororia, and preferably should be used as such - ie. Viola sororia f. priceana rather than Viola sororia priceana, and certainly not Viola sororia 'Priceana'. (There are italics issues here, but this forum does not allow me to use italics.)

Albiflora is also a form of V. sororia. Where you have seen reference to V. papilionacea f. albiflora, it should be V. sororia f. albiflora.

I do not know what the official Latin diagnosis of f. albiflora entails, but I would guess it describes the plant as having pure white flowers. My plant was certainly like that. In practice, the name probably gets applied to many individuals with largely-white flowers. The blue centre of V. sororia f. priceana is variable in size, from plant to plant. Hence the boundary between f. priceana and f. albiflora is partly a matter of opinion. That is, how much white is needed before you call it f. albiflora rather than f. priceana? Opinions vary.

Vv. sororia and striata are very different. Don't go just on pictures of the flowers. Perhaps the most obvious, and taxonomically significant, difference is that V. sororia has no aerial stems (just a rhizome), whereas V. striata has stems. Also, V. striata never has any blue in its flowers, and is a creamy colour, whereas the white in V. sororia flowers, of whatever form, is never than creamy. The stipules are very different, too.

Sharon: You say you have "white violets with purple veining". There are several species which fit that description. If you can post some images here (flower front and side, stem/base of plant, leaves), we may be able to pin them down.

Meanwhile http://plants.usda.gov/cgi_bin/topics.cgi?earl=advquery/adv_query.html will allow you to list which species of Viola are recorded from New Hampshire. Supposedly, you can constrain the list to those with white flowers, but that is not working properly.
You should, however, be able to constrain it to your county (which I don't know). The white ones for New Hampshire as a whole include: Vv.
- blanda
- lanceolata
- macloskeyi (may be a mistake, I think - they may mean V. pallens)
- primulifolia
- renifolia
- striata

Cheers,
Mike

Here is a link that might be useful: Earlier discussion of Vv. sororia/papilionacea on this forum