Morphological Variation in Viola selkirkii Pursh.

In the genus Viola, a species with little morphological variability is much rarer than the opposite: a species with definite and often highly complicated variation patterns. Among the acaulescent violets of eastern North America, there are three species especially notable for their distinctness: Viola renifolia Gray, V. rotundifolia Michx., and V. selkirkii Pursh. Variation has been studied and illustrated for the first two species (Russell, 1955, in press), and the present paper concerns the third, V. selkirkii: Selkirk’s Violet, or the “Great-spurred” violet.