Viola comuta and its cultivars

摘要

A modest violet from the Pyrenees has given rise to many fine cultivars. MIKE HARDMAN describes them and gives advice on cultivation. THE PYRENEES often play second fiddle to the Alps, but they have at least one card up their sleeves - Viola cornuta.It was in its mountain haunts that I first came across the species itself, in 1997, guided by my friend and fellow Viola enthusiast Nathalie Casbas. Seeing a species growing in its native habitat gives a much better understanding of a plant than simply growing its cultivars. In the case of V. cornuta, it opened my eyes considerably. The genus Viola, comprising 500-600 species, is mainly temperate in its distribution but occurs from the tropics to the Arctic and Antarctic circles, from sea level to highin the mountains, and in a wide range of habitats. In the wild, Viola cornuta favours meadows in subalpine and alpine zones 700-2,500m high in the central French and Spanish Pyrenees, though it has naturalised elsewhere. Its closest relative is the Caucasian V. orthoceras. Viola cornuta subsp. montcaunica, demoted from species status in 1980, extends the range towards central Spain.