Leaves: earliest blades ovate to elliptic; mid-season blades ovate or narrowly elliptic to narrowly deltate, 1.5–7 × 1–5 cm, base sagittate, hastate, or ± cordate, margins serrate, ciliate or eciliate, surfaces glabrous or sparsely pubescent. Sepal margins eciliate. Cleistogamous flowers on ascending to erect peduncles. 2n = 54.

Phenology: Flowering Mar–May.
Habitat: Sandy, open woods, fields, disturbed ground, roadsides, powerline rights-of-way
Elevation: 50–2500 m

Distribution

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N.S., Ont., Que., Ala., Ark., Conn., Del., D.C., Ga., Ill., Ind., Iowa, Kans., Ky., La., Maine, Md., Mass., Mich., Minn., Miss., Mo., N.J., N.Y., N.C., Ohio, Okla., Pa., R.I., S.C., Tenn., Tex., Va., W.Va., Wis.

Discussion

Although exhibiting variation in leaf-blade shape, var. sagittata is usually easily distinguished. There have been misconceptions regarding the identity of Viola emarginata, a species thought for a time to be different from V. sagittata. The type specimen of V. emarginata is conspecific with that of V. sagittata; E. L. Greene (1898b), apparently not having seen the type, portrayed V. emarginata with a somewhat deltate leaf form. N. H. Russell and A. C. Risser (1960) suggested that most collections representing V. emarginata were hybrids.

Variety sagittata reportedly hybridizes with V. cucullata (= V. ×porteriana Pollard), V. hirsutula (= V. ×redacta House), V. pedatifida var. brittoniana (= V. ×mulfordiae Pollard), V. sagittata var. ovata (= V. ×abundans House), and V. sororia var. sororia (= V. ×conjugens Greene).

Selected References

None.

Lower Taxa

None.