northern bog violet

Northern bog violet is one of several similar blue violets native to North America. In the western United States, it occurs from the Cascades and Sierra Nevadas east to the edge of the Great Plains. In the eastern U.S., it is most common from Maine and Vermont west to Minnesota and Iowa, but it also occurs as far south as North Carolina and Texas. It occurs across southern Canada from Nova Scotia to eastern British Columbia.

Northern bog violet is found in wet habitats, including pastures, bogs, fens, sedge meadows, and shores of lakes and streams. It grows under full sun to light shade, in saturated, loamy soil.

Northern bog violet is a perennial, 2″ to 6″ (5 to 15 cm) tall, herbaceous plant. It has no aerial stem. A rosette of 4 to 7 basal leaves and one or more flowering stalks rise directly from a thick underground stem (rhizome). The rhizome is prostrate or slightly ascending and ⅛″ to ¼″ (4 to 6 mm) thick.

The basal leaves rise directly from the rhizome on ¾″ to 10″ (2 to 25 cm) long leaf stalks (petioles). The petioles are usually hairless. At the base of each petiole is a pair of conspicuous leaf-like appendages (stipules). The stipules are less than ⅝″ (15 mm) long, and they are completely separated from the petiole. They are lance-shaped and narrowly pointed at the tip. The margins are untoothed. The texture is membranous to somewhat herbaceous. The leaf blades are fleshy and egg-shaped, kidney-shaped, or broadly kidney-shaped to almost circular. They are unlobed, heart-shaped at the base, and usually narrowly or broadly pointed, sometimes rounded, at the tip. The margins are finely toothed or scalloped for their entire length. The underside is usually grayish green or purplish green. The upper and lower surfaces are usually hairless, rarely sparsely hairy.

The inflorescence is a single flower at the end of a usually hairless, 1¼″ to 10″ (3 to 25 cm) long stalk (peduncle). The flowers rarely overtop the leaves. Two types of flowers are produced: open, cross-pollinated (chasmogamous) flowers are produced in the spring; and closed, self-fertilizing (cleistogamous) flowers are produced in the summer.

Cross-pollinated flowers are ¾″ to 1¼″ (2 to 3 cm) long and wide. There are 5 sepals, 5 petals, 5 stamens, and 1 style. The sepals are green, oblong, and less than ⅝″ (15 mm) long. There is a pair of inconspicuous, 1⁄64″ to 1⁄32″ (0.5 to 1.0 mm) long, ear-like projections (auricles) at the base. The petals are usually bluish purple or purple on both surfaces. There are 2 upper petals, two lateral petals, and 1 lower petal. The upper petals are sometimes sparsely bearded. The lateral petals are white at the base and are heavily bearded. The lower petal is white at the base with dark violet veins. It is bearded, but it may appear beardless because the beard is deep in the throat of the flower. It has a rounded spur at the base that usually extends well beyond the auricles at the base of the sepals. The 5 stamens have very short filaments. They do not protrude from the throat of the corolla and usually cannot be seen without dissecting the flower. The flowers are not fragrant.

Self-polinated flowers are on slender, erect or strongly ascending peduncles.

The fruit is an egg-shaped to ellipse-shaped, 3⁄16″ to ⅜″ (5 to 10 mm) long, hairless capsule with many beige to brown or dark brown seeds.

2″ to 6″ (5 to 15 cm)

Bluish purple or purple

Common blue violet (Viola sororia) leaf blade is not fleshy, the underside is green, and both surfaces are usually hairy. It occurs in dry or moderately moist areas, not in saturated soils.

Wet. Pastures, bogs, fens, sedge meadows, and shores of lakes and streams. Full sun to light shade. Saturated loamy soil

April to July

Sources

2, 3, 5, 7, 24, 28, 29, 30.

Biodiversity occurrence data published by: Minnesota Biodiversity Atlas (accessed through the Minnesota Biodiversity Atlas Portal, bellatlas.umn.edu, 6/29/2025).

Native

Common

Sand Violet?
GRIN and ITIS treat this taxa as Viola sororia var. affinis. ITIS uses the common name “sand violet” for Viola sororia var. affinis, which is a curious name for a plant that usually occurs in wetlands (facultative wetland).

All other sources checked treat this taxa as Viola nephrophylla. These sources include

Northern Bog Violet

It was hard to find any with a blossom just noticed the plants …

Another Northern Bog Violet...

Not sure but maybe they are done blooming for the season. They were in a previous prescribed burn area out there. They did a prescribed burn on maybe half the TV SNA and burned out the entire adjacent larger Twin Valley Prairie sometime this early Spring 2025.

But I had to really look to find any violets blooming.

Northern bog violet, violette néphrophylle - Viola nephrophylla
Flora and Fauna by Rostyslav Yurechko

Dan W. Andree
6/18/2025

Location: Twin Valley Prairie SNA

Not sure but maybe they are done blooming for the season. They were in a previous prescribed burn area out there. They did a prescribed burn on maybe half the TV SNA and burned out the entire adjacent larger Twin Valley Prairie sometime this early Spring 2025.

But I had to really look to find any violets blooming.

Dan W. Andree
6/15/2025

Location: Twin Valley Prairie SNA

It was hard to find any with a blossom just noticed the plants …