Viola acuminata Ledebour

Herbs perennial, usually without basal leaves. Rhizome erect or oblique, robust, with numerous brownish roots. Stem usually 2-4 fasciculate, erect, 10-40 cm tall, glabrous or white puberulous in upper part. Stipules leaflike, 1-3.5 cm × 2-8 mm, herbaceous, usually pinnatifid and fimbriate, or shallowly divided, ciliate along margin, both surfaces dotlike brown glandular, sparsely puberulous along veins; lower petioles to 6 cm, upper ones shorter, 1.5-2.5 cm, glabrous or sparsely puberulous; blade cordate, ovate-cordate, or ovate, 1.5-5.5 × 1.5-4.5 cm, densely dotlike brown glandular on both sides, sparsely puberulous along veins, base usually cordate, rarely truncate, margin obtusely serrate and shortly ciliate, apex acute or acuminate. Flowers whitish violet or white, long pedicellate; pedicels usually exceeding leaves, slender, puberulous, with 2 linear bracteoles above middle or near flower. Sepals linear-lanceolate, 7-12 × 1.5-2.5 mm, outer 3 longer and broader, apex acuminate, basal auricles 2-3 mm, apex truncate or sometimes 1- or 2-dentate, puberulous adaxially and along margin, 3-veined. Petals dotlike brown glandular, upper petals subequaling lateral ones, curved upward, usually glabrous, rarely bearded, lateral ones distinctly bearded, anterior one often purple veined, 0.9-1.6 cm (spur included); spur usually straight, 1.5-5 mm, saccate, apex obtuse; spur of 2 anterior stamens short and obtuse, ca. 1.5 mm. Ovary conic, glabrous; styles slightly curved forward at base, gradually thickened, with several series of papillose protuberances at apex, shortly beaked at apex, tip of beak slightly curved upward, with a larger stigma hole. Capsule ellipsoid, ca. 1 cm, glabrous, usually dotlike yellow-brown glandular, apex acuminate. Fl. May-Jun, fr. Jun-Sep.

Anhui, Gansu, Hebei, Heilongjiang, Henan, Hubei, Jilin, Liaoning, Nei Mongol, Ningxia, Shaanxi, Shandong, Shanxi, Sichuan, Zhejiang [Japan, Korea, Mongolia, Russia].

Mixed forests, forest margins, thickets, grasslands on mountain slopes, moist places and shaded and moist grasslands in stream valleys; 400-2500 m.