BOTANICAL AND ECOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS
SPECIES: Viola renifolia | Kidney-Leaved Violet 



GENERAL BOTANICAL CHARACTERISTICS : 
Kidney-leaved violet is a native perennial that grows 2 to 4 inches
(5-10 cm) tall.  It has reniform, or kidney-shaped, leaves that are 1 to
2.5 inches (3-6 cm) long.  It does not have stolons, as some similar
species do.  The flowers are zygomorhpic and cleistogamous.  The 10- to
15-mm-long corolla has white petals; the lower three are purple-penciled.
The capsule is purplish; seeds are brown and 1 to 5 mm long [1,7,8].


RAUNKIAER LIFE FORM : 
   Chamaephyte


REGENERATION PROCESSES : 
Kidney-leaved violet reproduces by both sexual and vegetative means [3].


SITE CHARACTERISTICS : 
Kidney-leaved violet grows from inland forests to subalpine slopes.  It
occurs on cool or damp sites in moist coniferous forests at low to
middle elevations [7,8,12].  It is usually found in cedar swamps, woods,
and thickets of other conifers in the Lake States [18] and in rich, open
woods in New England [15].  Seeds have been found in organic but not
mineral soils [5].

Kidney-leaved violet was more common in mesotrophic white spruce (Picea
glauca) forests than in submesotrophic lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta)
forests [11].  Across Canada, it had 47 percent presence in white spruce
forests and 35 percent presence in black spruce (Picea mariana) [10].
In a white spruce forest in Alberta, kidney-leaved violet represented
0.2 to 0.5 percent of the plant cover [11].

Kidney-leaved violet occurs at elevations ranging from 3,000 to 5,000
feet (900-1,525 m) in Montana [17] and 6,500 to 10,500 feet (2,095-3,199
m) in Colorado [3,7].


SUCCESSIONAL STATUS : 
In Alberta, kidney-leaved violet seeds were found in the soil seed bank
only where mature plants were already present.  The species was present
in stands 80 to 145 years old [5].


SEASONAL DEVELOPMENT : 
Kidney-leaved violet floweres in June and July in Montana [12,17].  In
New England, it flowers during the last week of May [15].

Related categories for Species: Viola renifolia | Kidney-Leaved Violet