Thank you Mr. Garg and Tabish ji for your comments. We can all appreciate the
difficulties involved.
The issue boils down to which source(s) we trust the most in our
identifications. Especially when the sources we usually refer to do not agree
with each other.
When I began looking at the two viola species in Dharamshala in 2015, the first
characteristic I looked at was the stipules. I was told that the fringed ones
meant canescens and toothed ones pilosa. Now I have learnt that these can be
variable. FOC describes them for V. Pilosa as "stipules mostly free, brown or
green, lanceolate, margin long or shortly fimbriate-dentate, apex long
acuminate”.
Flora of China does not include V. canescens in its list of viola species in
China but makes a brief comment under V. pilosa description "In FRPS (51: 90.
1991), the name Viola canescens Wallich was misapplied to this species.” FRPS
is Latin for Flora of China. This is not elaborated further so we will not know
if the author(s) does not approve of V. canescens as a valid species or is
merely suggesting that these features were earlier confused with V. canescens.
Next, I learnt that to know violas, one has to look at the style/stigma. So I
did my best to look at the style closely. I found out that the style is
club-shaped, gradually thickening upwards culminating in a perforated stigma
placed on the side.
This matches the description given by FOC for V. pilosa. But Flora of
Pakistan gives the stigma for V. canescens as club-shaped but does
not elaborate more.
FOP does not give the shape of the stigma for V. pilosa but tells us
that it is beaked. The perforation-like stigma, can be seen like a beak from an
angle but I am not sure if I want to base my identification on a feature that
is open to interpretation.
Flora Simlensis says that V. canescens has a truncated stigma and not
beaked, and describes stigma for V. serpens (synonym of V. pilosa) as being
three-lobed and beaked. The stigma on our plant may look truncated to the naked
eye but under a modest magnification, the shape becomes obvious.
Flowers of the Himalaya lists V. pilosa as having a 3-lobed stigma with
a beak too but does not comment on the stigma of V. canescens.
So neither the stipules nor the style/stigma shapes are agreed upon in the
literature. FOC pdf was compiled in 2007 and could be the most recent study we
have on the genus in China/Asia. I am not sure how often the Flora of Pakistan
is updated but the books I have consulted are all much older than 2007. But
since the study does not include V. canescens at all, we are still left
wondering.
Our species matches the descriptions broadly for V. pilosa in FOC and V.
canescens in FOP. How do we move forward?
Thank you and regards,
Ashwini
> On 12-Apr-2020, at 9:47 AM, Tabish <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> This is from FOC description of Viola pilosa:
> "styles clavate, base slightly geniculate, gradually thickened upward;
> stigmas ± flat, not margined, very inconspicuously short beaked in front,
> with smaller stigma hole at tip of beak."
> best wishes
> Tabish
>
> On Sun, 12 Apr, 2020, 8:38 AM J.M. Garg, <[email protected]
> <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
> As both species are quite confusing, these key features are not visible in
> images of Viola canescens at FOI
> <http://www.flowersofindia.net/catalog/slides/Himalayan%20White%20Violet.html>.
> I have doubts about correctness of these images in FOI.
>
> On Sun, 12 Apr 2020 at 08:27, J.M. Garg <[email protected]
> <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
> Pl. see Viola canescens
> <https://sites.google.com/site/efloraofindia/species/m---z/v/violaceae/viola/viola-canescens>.
> I think style is the best clue. Here style is club shaped. Leaves are also
> not acuminate.
>
> As per keys in Flora of Pakistan
> <http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=5&taxon_id=134607>:
> 13 <> (12)
> <http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=5&taxon_id=134607#KEY-1-12>
> Stigma beaked. Ovary glabrous (14)
> <http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=5&taxon_id=134607#KEY-1-14>
> + Stigma club shaped. Ovary hairy 2 Viola canescens
> <http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=5&taxon_id=200014339>
>
> 14 <> (13)
> <http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=5&taxon_id=134607#KEY-1-13>
> Leaves acuminate. Sepals lanceolate, acute, ciliate-dentate
> 3 Viola pilosa
> <http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=5&taxon_id=200014403>
> + Leaves obtuse. Sepals ovate, obtuse, entire 1 Viola odorata
> <http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=5&taxon_id=200014395>
>
> On Sat, 11 Apr 2020 at 23:36, Tabish <[email protected]
> <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
> This type of Viola, with all sepals equal and with ciliate margins, I would
> think it is Viola pilosa.
> Tabish
> -------------------------------------------
> <http://www.flowersofindia.net/>www.flowersofindia.net
> <http://www.flowersofindia.net/>
> The waterhole of flower lovers
>
>
> On Sat, Apr 11, 2020 at 6:24 PM Ashwini Bhatia <[email protected]
> <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
> This is the second species from Dharamshala which is still confusing. The
> flowers can be from pure white to deep mauve and vary in size from 1.5 to
> 2.2cm. Most are wider than long.
>
> The petals are of different shapes and sizes. The two uppermost are the
> broadest at ca. 7mm, the laterals are roughly 5mm wide (both about 13mm
> long). The lowest petal (or the uppermost if you consider resupination, but
> for clarity I am using the lowest) is the narrowest at 4mm and excluding the
> spur about 10mm long. The spur is cylindrical, white, and can be hooked or
> not and is 3mm long.
>
> The leaves are slightly paler underneath, hairy on both surfaces with
> scattered white hairs. The petiole is hairy and the stipules are laciniate
> (with long hair-like projections on both long edges).
>
> The pedicel projects beyond the leaves mostly and is covered on white hairs
> too. Sepals are lanceolate, equal and have hairy margins.
>
> The anthers are pale yellow, two with nectaries projecting into the spur. The
> nectaries are yellow-green, hairy and about 2mm long.
>
> The ovary is hairy at the top. The stigma appears truncated at lower
> magnification but up-close reveals a crater like perforation at the top of
> the club-shaped style.
>
> The seeds are yellow with dark purple warts on their surface. Elaiosomes are
> prominent.
>
> Depending on how we interpret this data, we could either believe this to be
> Viola pilosa or Viola canescens. All comments are welcome.
>
> Thanks.
> Ashwini
>
> All photos taken between 1750 and 2200m in Dharamshala, Himachal Pradesh. the
> flowering season is usually late February to June. A few plants can be found
> well into autumn too.
>
>
>
>
>
>
> --
> With regards,
> J.M.Garg
> 'Creating awareness of Indian Flora & Fauna'
> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Jmgarg1>
> Winner of Wipro-NFS Sparrow Awards 2014 for efloraofindia
> <https://sites.google.com/site/efloraofindia/award-for-efloraofindia>.
> For identification, learning, discussion & documentation of Indian Flora,
> please visit/ join our Efloraofindia Google e-group
> <https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/indiantreepix> (largest in the
> world- more than 3,000 members & 3,00,000 messages on 23.8.18) or
> Efloraofindia website <https://sites.google.com/site/efloraofindia/> (with a
> species database of more than 13,000 species & 3,00,000 images of which more
> than 2,50,000 images are directly displayed on 31.1.20).
> The whole world uses my Image Resource
> <http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:J.M.Garg> of more than a thousand
> species & eight thousand images of Birds, Butterflies, Plants etc. (arranged
> alphabetically & place-wise). You can also use them for free as per Creative
> Commons license attached with each image.
> Also author of 'A Photoguide to the Birds of Kolkata & Common Birds of India'.
>
>
> --
> With regards,
> J.M.Garg
> 'Creating awareness of Indian Flora & Fauna'
> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Jmgarg1>
> Winner of Wipro-NFS Sparrow Awards 2014 for efloraofindia
> <https://sites.google.com/site/efloraofindia/award-for-efloraofindia>.
> For identification, learning, discussion & documentation of Indian Flora,
> please visit/ join our Efloraofindia Google e-group
> <https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/indiantreepix> (largest in the
> world- more than 3,000 members & 3,00,000 messages on 23.8.18) or
> Efloraofindia website <https://sites.google.com/site/efloraofindia/> (with a
> species database of more than 13,000 species & 3,00,000 images of which more
> than 2,50,000 images are directly displayed on 31.1.20).
> The whole world uses my Image Resource
> <http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:J.M.Garg> of more than a thousand
> species & eight thousand images of Birds, Butterflies, Plants etc. (arranged
> alphabetically & place-wise). You can also use them for free as per Creative
> Commons license attached with each image.
> Also author of 'A Photoguide to the Birds of Kolkata & Common Birds of India'.
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
"efloraofindia" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email
to [email protected].
To view this discussion on the web, visit
https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/indiantreepix/1FC6F126-6FEB-4B1B-8A71-10656D7E31EA%40gmail.com.
