Stemless violet with light purple-blue flowers. Leaf margins, undersides, and petioles slightly hairy. We observed that young leaves appeared quite hairy, while older leaves had lost their pubesence pretty much entirely. Leaves cordate to orbicular, leaf auricles broad. Leaves crenate (round toothed) to dentate (toothed). Largest leaf we measured was 4 cm wide, and 5 cm in length, and tallest was 13 cm in height (includes petiole).
Flower scapes at or below the level of the leaves. Spur 4 mm long and 3 mm wide, spur petal to 18 mm long.
I spent an afternoon at the Fraser Herbarium at the University of Saskatchewan before our trip to Hudson Bay looking to photograph Saskatchewan's rare Violet species. I could not distinguish V. sororia specimens from V. septentrionalis in leaf shape, size, pubesence, nothing. ITIS (Integrated Taxanomic Information System) did a revision fall / 2007, and these 2 species are now listed together as V. sororia.
Taxonomic key to Saskatchewan's violets.
Habitat is moist woodlands. An eastern species, this plant is very rare in Saskatchewan, listed as an S1 by the Saskatchewan Conservation Data Centre.
Above photos taken June 3rd, Porcupine Hills Provincial Forest, about 400 km north east of our home in Regina, SK.