Year on year, the field season kicks off with the dilemma of telling the early from the common dog-violet. You know how it is…
The sweet violet, appearing first, lulls us into a false sense of security. Even if you don’t get one of the give-away colour variants, a quick turn of the flower heads reveals the blunt sepals and you go on your way confident that you understand the world. You can do it almost without slowing your pace. But in West Herefordshire the white one spatters the verges anyway, a giveaway of settlement. They are survivors. At Bredwardine church there are even a few clumps of wine-red colour.
Until 2013 I had spent most of the last 30 years in the north-east. Here, the problem of telling the early dog-violet Viola reichenbachiana from the common dog-violet Viola riviniana hardly arises, as the former is uncommon, giving up trying to make a living much north of Yorkshire. Back in southern Britain again, and I have to do my homework. I like the honesty of Clapham, Tutin & Moore (1987), who begin their account “scarcely distinguishable but…”
Riviniana is a plant of woodland or grassland, but reichenbachiana is seldom seen outside of woodlands, I think. Please will botanists local to Herefordshire, the Marches, (or indeed anywhere!), leave comments below on their understanding of the ecology of these two species.
Sweet-violets aside, in terms of practical help the first violet vigilant botanists in the South will see in the woods is Viola reichenbachiana (the first violet vigilant botanists in north of the Tees will see in their woods is probably going to be Viola riviniana). Herefordshire botanists should clock these early plants, and park them in their consciousness in preparation for the arrival of the other species a fortnight later. As always, accept that a positive identification may not always be possible. Get up, move on, and look for more typical material. The chances are you will see some before your walk is over.
It is indeed awful to have to type or say reichenbachiana so frequently at this time of year. We should console ourselves the early dog-violet remembers Ludwig Reichenbach (1793 – 1879), he of the famous glass flowers which must have done a lot to win people over to field botany.
By the way, Viola canina, what might legitimately claim to be the true dog-violet, is in dire straits in Herefordshire, as in most of Britain. So much so it need not concern us as a source of confusion. But that is for another post.
Fiona Everingham
Brilliant, I don’t know where you find the time and energy to put this together! I am inspired now to go out and look more closely at all the violets that are springing up….which will probably all prove to be V.riviniana. Thanks