Violaceae

Defining Characteristics

• Flowers strongly zygomorphic (bilaterally symmetrical) with 5 petals — lower petal typically spurred or saccate
• 5 sepals , often with basal appendages (auricles)
• 5 stamens , often with connective extensions beyond the anthers; lower 2 stamens usually spurred
• Superior ovary ; fruit a 3-valved capsule that explosively ejects seeds
• Many temperate species produce cleistogamous (closed, self-pollinating) flowers in addition to open chasmogamous flowers
• Simple, alternate leaves with stipules (stipules sometimes large and leaf-like)

Notable Genera

• Viola (violets, pansies — ~550 species, the vast majority of the family)
• Hybanthus (green violets)
• Rinorea (tropical violets)

Notes

Dominated overwhelmingly by the genus Viola, which accounts for more than half the family's species. Garden pansies and violas (Viola x wittrockiana and relatives) are major horticultural plants. Many Viola species are spring ephemerals in temperate forests. The explosive seed dispersal (ballistic) flings seeds up to several meters; seeds also bear elaiosomes (oil bodies) that attract ants for secondary dispersal ( myrmecochory ).