Kingdom: Plantae
(unranked): Angiosperms
(unranked): Eudicots
(unranked): Rosids
Order: Malpighiales
Family: Violaceae
Genus: Viola
Species: V. tricolor
Binomial name: Viola tricolor
Common names: Heartsease, Heart's ease, Heart's delight, Tickle-my-fancy, Jack-jump-up-and-kiss-me, Come-and-cuddle-me, Three faces in a hood, Love-in-idleness, Wild pansy, Johnny jump-up, Love-Lies-Bleeding. Love-in-Idleness, Live-in-Idleness, Loving Idol, Love Idol, Cull Me, Cuddle Me, Call-me-to-you, Meet-me-in-the-Entry, Kiss-her-in-the-Buttery, Kit-run-in-the-Fields, Pink-o'-the-Eye. Kit-run-about, Godfathers and Godmothers, Stepmother, Herb Trinitatis, Herb Constancy, Pink-eyed-John,. Bouncing Bet, Flower o'luce, Bird's Eye. Bullweed.
Viola tricolor is a flower introduced from Europe as a garden plant but has now escaped and is growing wild. It is a small dicotyledonous herb of creeping and ramping habit, reaching at most 15 cm in height. The 1.5 cm diameter flowers are produced over summer and they can be purple, blue, yellow or white. They are hermaphrodite and self-fertile and are pollinated by bees.
It grows in short grassland on farms, wasteland, roadsides, riverbeds and stony wasteland.
In the past in Europe Viola tricolor was used as a remedy for epilepsy, asthma and numerous other complaints, and the flowers were considered cordial and good in diseases of the heart, from which may have arisen its popular name of Heartsease as much as from belief in it as a love potion.
Another colour pattern.
Thanks to Wikipedia for text and information: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
