Latin name: Viola sororia
I didn't know that violets grow in North America. As it turns out, there's a lot about violets I didn't know. The African Violet is not really related to North American violets, for one. Also, pansies are in the violet family, you can eat violet leaves in salads as a good source of vitamins A and C and its flowers can be used in jellies. The violet gives off an aromatic ketone, ionine, which temporarily desensitizes nasal receptors, so you only get one sniff. Ionine smells like violets! The Common Blue Violet, pictured here, is hardy and tends to prefer acidic soil. The ones shown here grow at the side of our driveway. They are most welcome. Apparantly, undeveloped flowers produce many many seeds. We'll be collecting them and trying to encourage more growth.
This picture was taken with our Canon A95 on manual setting at f8 at a shutter speed of 1/20th of a second.
