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Wild pansy's flower stalks are long, hairless, and bend like a shepherd's crook just below the base of the flower so the flower axis is approximately horizontal. Individual flowers have five 7-15 mm long, lance-shaped sepals that are longer than the petals and are sharply pointed at their tips; a 4-12 mm long corolla with five white or pale cream-colored petals, a yellow throat with a few dark purple lines, the lateral petals bearded on their upper surface, and a 1-1.5 mm long spur; two stamens not visible externally; and a single style enlarged into a hollow, globose stigma. The fruit is a spherical or ellipsoidal three-valved capsule, 5-10 mm long containing 6-75, 1.5 mm long, brown seeds.

Viola

Viola arvensis

wild pansy [Blooms: Jun-?]

Yellow violet is a native perennial, the only yellow violet species in Jackson Park (indeed, in all of Illinois). One or more stems arise from an axil of a stem leaf; they are up to 6" tall with a single 3/4" long flower at their tips. Each flower consists of five light green sepals, five yellow petals, five stamens, and a single style; the stamens and style cannot be seen from the exterior. On the lower petal, the flowers have purple lines (nectar guides) and a spur reduced to a small pouch. The two lower, lateral petals have small tufts of hair that obscure the throat of the flower and hide the stamens and style; the two upper, lateral petals are beardless and have only faint lines (nectar guides), if any. The fruit of this species is a bullet-shaped (hairless in the Jackson Park forms) capsule nestled in the calyx with the remnant of the style at its tip, initially green but turning brown as it matures; it ultimately splits along three suture lines to fling the seeds away from the plant.

Viola

Viola pubescens

yellow violet [Blooms: Apr-May]