Viola patrinii Ging.

Herbs perennial, acaulescent, 7-20 cm tall. Rhizome erect, dark brown, short, 4-10 mm, stout. Roots usually straight descending or slightly horizontal, black-brown, long, robust, often produced from same place on rhizome. Leaves 3-5 or more, basal; stipules green, ca. 2/3 adnate to petioles, free part linear-lanceolate, margin remotely denticulate or entire, apex acuminate; petiole long, usually 2-3 × exceeding blades, 2-12 cm, slender, usually glabrous or sparsely puberulous, narrowly or slightly broadly winged in upper part; leaf blade oblong, elliptic, narrowly ovate, or oblong-lanceolate, 1.5-6 × 0.6-2 cm, thin, both surfaces glabrous or puberulous along veins, base truncate, slightly cordate, or broadly cuneate, decurrent to petiole, margin remotely and shallowly repand-crenate or sometimes subentire, apex obtuse. Flowers white, purplish veined, medium-sized; pedicels usually exceeding or subequaling leaves, slender, glabrous or sparsely puberulous, 2-bracteolate below middle; bracteoles linear. Sepals ovate-lanceolate or lanceolate, apex ± acute or slightly obtuse, basal auricles short, ca. 1 mm, obtuse. Upper petals obovate, ca. 1.2 cm, base narrow, lateral ones oblong-obovate, ca. 1.2 cm, bearded, anterior one ca. 1.3 cm (spur included); spur shallowly saccate, short, robust, ca. 3 mm or slightly shorter, ca. 3 mm in diam., apex rounded. Anthers ca. 2 mm, appendage of connectives ca. 1.5 mm; spur of 2 anterior stamens short, ca. 2 mm, robust, ca. 0.6 mm in diam. Ovary narrowly ovoid, glabrous; styles clavate, slender, base slightly geniculate, slightly thickened in upper part; stigmas flat at top and triangular, narrowly margined on lateral sides, shortly beaked in front, beak obliquely ascending, with a smaller stigma hole at tip. Capsule ca. 1 cm, glabrous. Seeds yellow-brown to dark brown, ovoid-globose. Fl. May-Jun, fr. Jun-Sep. 2n = 12, 24, 36.

Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning, Nei Mongol [Japan, Korea, Mongolia, Russia].

Marshy meadows, moist places along riversides, thickets, moist and shaded places at forest margins; 200-1700 m.

Viola patrinii var. brevicalcarata Skvortsov; V. primulifolia var. glabra Nakai.