Viola canina

What to Eat

Edible parts: Flowers, Leaves

Young leaves and flower buds can be eaten raw or cooked. When added to soups they thicken them in much the same way as okra. The leaves can also be used to make a tea.

Where to Find It

It is a temperate plant. It suits hardiness zones 6-9.

Asia, Australia, Britain, Europe, Luxembourg, Norway, Scandinavia, Slovenia, Turkey, Türkiye,

How to Identify

A small plant. It grows 10-30 cm high and spreads 30-50 cm wide. It keeps growing from year to year. It is low and spreading. The leaves are dark green and have shallow teeth. The leaves are oval and pointed or heart shaped. They are 25 mm long. The flowers are mauve, purple or white. They are 18 mm wide. They have a pale yellow spur.

How to Grow

Prefers a cool moist well-drained humus-rich soil in partial or dappled shade and protection from scorching winds. Tolerates sandstone and limestone soils but becomes chlorotic if the pH is too high. Prefers a pH between 6 and 6.5. All members of this genus have more or less edible leaves and flower buds, though those species with yellow flowers can cause diarrhoea if eaten in large quantities.

Propagation: Seed is best sown in autumn in a cold frame. Stored seed can be sown in early spring in a cold frame. Prick seedlings into individual pots when large enough to handle and plant out during summer. Divide plants in autumn or just after flowering. Larger divisions can go directly into permanent positions, but smaller divisions do best potted up and grown on in light shade in a greenhouse or cold frame until established, then planted out in summer or the following spring.

Medicinal Uses

The flowers and leaves are powerfully cathartic and emetic. The plant has also carried a reputation for curing skin diseases.

Other Uses

None known Special Uses

Viola canina, commonly known as heath dog-violet and heath violet, is a species of the flowering plant in the violet family Violaceae. It is native to Europe, where it is found in heaths, fens, and moist woodlands, especially on acidic soils. It is a herbaceous perennial plant growing to 5–15 cm (2.0–5.9 in) tall. The flowers are pale blue, produced from April to July. Colonies of plants may be extensive. It is host to the pathogenic fungi Puccinia violae and Ramularia lactea.

Notes

There are about 500 Viola species.

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