Marsh blue or northern bog or marsh or blue marsh violet, violette cucullée Marsh blue or northern bog or marsh or blue marsh violet, violette cucullée

Viola cucullata var. leptosepala (Greene) W. Stone; V. cucullata var. macrotis (Greene) W. Stone; V. cucullata var. microtitis Brainerd; V. dicksonii Greene; V. leptosepala Greene; V. macrotis Greene

Plants perennial, acaulescent, not stoloniferous, 5–20 cm; rhizome thick, fleshy. Leaves basal, 4–8, ascending to erect; stipules linear-lanceolate, margins entire, apex acute; petiole 6–20 cm, usually glabrous; blade unlobed, ovate to reniform, 1.5–11 × 1–9 cm, base reniform to cordate, margins crenate to serrate, ciliate, apex acute or obtuse to slightly caudate, surfaces glabrous, rarely pubescent. Peduncles 7–25 cm, glabrous or pubescent. Flowers: sepals lanceolate, margins ciliate or eciliate, auricles 3–6 mm; petals light to dark blue-violet to violet on both surfaces, upper 2 and lateral 2 darker basally, lateral 2 densely bearded, lowest white basally, dark purple-veined, 9–13 mm, spur color same as petals, gibbous, 2–3 mm; style head beardless; cleistogamous flowers on erect peduncles. Capsules ellipsoid to ± ovoid, 10–15 mm, glabrous. Seeds beige, mottled to bronze, 1–2 mm. 2n = 54.

Flowering Apr–Jun. Open or wooded wet areas, seeps, springs, swamps, marshes, streamsides; 0–2000 m; St. Pierre and Miquelon; N.B., Nfld. and Labr. (Nfld.), N.S., Ont., P.E.I., Que.; Ark., Conn., Del., D.C., Ga., Ill., Ind., Iowa, Ky., Maine, Md., Mass., Mich., Minn., Miss., Mo., N.H., N.J., N.Y., N.C., Ohio, Pa., R.I., S.C., Tenn., Vt., Va., W.Va., Wis.

Viola cucullata reportedly hybridizes with V. sororia (= V. ×bissellii House), V. brittoniana (= V. ×notabilis E. P. Bicknell), and V. sagittata var. sagittata (= V. ×porteriana House).