Violetes Native or Not?

8 years ago

I went to a Native Plant sale and purchased two kinds of violets.
A small "Labrador violet" (Viola labradorica...pictured below) and Viola sororia "speckled". These would go under two pine trees...one in full shade, the other in almost full sun (since two trees were close together and one died, creating a hole). Also, I purchased a smooth aster (Aster laevis) I'm debating planting on an embankment

facing the oceam

My questions:
1.) Are they native?
2.) If not, would it be environmentally responsible to plant them outside?

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Comments (3)

WoodsTea 6a MO
8 years ago
Depends on where you are I suppose, but I think you could make the case that all of these are native:

http://bonap.net/MapGallery/County/Viola%20labradorica.png

http://bonap.net/MapGallery/County/Viola%20sororia.png

http://bonap.net/MapGallery/County/Symphyotrichum%20laeve.png

Sounds like the V. sororia is a cultivar -- there's a fair amount of debate on this forum about whether you can call that truly native. My thinking has loosened up some on that, I worry about it less than I used to.
edlincoln
8 years ago
I'm in New England. I just read online a lot of plants sold in the U.S. As Labrador violet are really a European violet. I'm not a native purist...I just like to give natives "first dibs" and avoid non-natives likely to be aggressive. Totally ok with a cultivar, less sure about hybrids.
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I don't know, Viola pratincola is just a variety of Viola sororia, Common Blue Violet, according to a quick google search; here's a nice key to the wild violets. WW Here is a link that might be useful: Key to wild violets
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Nothing surprising living in France: really common, 66 millions do ;oP Well, beware photos on the web many have wrong names, sometimes it's definitively anything :-( Do you know how capsules look like, the color of the seeds (black, brown, yellow ?) ? Do you have a better pic of the bloom so as to see pistil ? Is that violet native ?
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WoodsTea 6a MO
8 years ago
Do you know the source of the plants? I try to buy as much as possible from nurseries that specialize in natives, and who source from local lands.

I suppose you could leave the Labrador violet potted until it reaches a point (flowering, etc.) where you can make a more positive identification. Here in Missouri we have a local Facebook group for native plants that includes a number of botanists and other plant ID experts, so it's been fairly easy for me to get help with identification. Maybe there's something similar for New England?

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Violetes Native or Not?

Comments (3)

WoodsTea 6a MO

edlincoln

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