DWARF PANSY

Viola kitaibeliana

Violet Family [Violaceae]

month8apr month8april month8may

status
statusZnative
flower
flower8multicolour
flower
flower8mauve
flower
flower8white
inner
inner8yellow
morph
morph8zygo
petals
petalsZ5
type
typeZspurred
stem
stem8round
rarity
rarityZrare
sex
sexZbisexual

May 2008, Bryher, Scilly Isles. Photo: © Dawn Nelson
This one is indeed tiny, but most are a bit bigger than this, and can reach up to 10cm high in the limit. But it looks like most plants around here are dwarfed to some extent, even some of the grass. It must be something to do with the sea (which is nearby) and possibly the wind, if any...


April 2014, Bryher, Scilly Isles. Photo: © Dawn Nelson
A gathering of them, with a couple of Stork's-bills on the left for some sort of scale.


April 2014, Bryher, Scilly Isles. Photo: © Dawn Nelson
(The pinnate leaves in the foreground, your Author thinks, do not belong to Dwarf Pansy, although they could do if they ended in a single larger terminating lobe like other pansies have).


April 2014, Bryher, Scilly Isles. Photo: © Dawn Nelson
Dwarf Pansies look much like other multi-coloured pansies such as Mountain Pansy or Wild Pansy, but are usually much shorter, like these specimens which look as though they are no higher than 5cm. Your Author is not sure about the stem on the right looks like it has lost its flower, but it might be of a differing plant by the sinuous nature of its stem?

The spur at the rear (not visible on this photo) is very short at just 1 to 2mm long and often violet in colour. The stipules are about the same as those of Field Pansy, but are much smaller.



April 2014, Bryher, Scilly Isles. Photo: © Dawn Nelson
The flowers are between 4 to 8mm across. (The leaf on the far left with Y-shaped hairs on both sides may belong to a differing plant?)


April 2014, Bryher, Scilly Isles. Photo: © Dawn Nelson
The yellow discoidal style is visible just within the throat of this specimen.


April 2014, Bryher, Scilly Isles. Photo: © Dawn Nelson
A close-up of the flower.


Some similarities to : Field Pansy (Viola arvensis) but that is taller up to 45cm rather than the up to 10cm for Dwarf Pansy. Also, the flowers of Field Pansy are larger at 8 to 20mm across (as opposed to 4 to 8mm for Dwarf Pansy.

It is a rare [RRR] annual flower, which is either decumbent or erect growing up to 10cm high and found only on Scilly and The Channel Islands, where it is nativegrowing on short turf on sandy soil beside the sea.


  Viola kitaibeliana  ⇐ Global Aspect ⇒ Violaceae  

Distribution
 family8Violet family8Violaceae
 BSBI maps
genus8Viola
Viola
(Violets)

DWARF PANSY

Viola kitaibeliana

Violet Family [Violaceae]