如意草 ru yi cao

Viola alata Burgersdijk; V. alata subsp. verecunda (A. Gray) W. Becker; V. amurica W. Becker; V. arcuata f. radicans (Makino) Nakai; V. arcuata var. verecunda (A. Gray) Nakai; V. distans Wallich; V. excisa Hance; V. hupeiana W. Becker; V. verecunda A. Gray; V. verecunda f. hensoaensis Kudo & Sasaki; V. verecunda f. radicans Makino; V. verecunda var. semilunaris Maximowicz.

Herbs perennial. Rhizome procumbent, brown, ca. 2 mm in diam., with numerous fibrous roots, producing several stems or stolons. Stems usually several fasciculate, greenish, to 35 cm tall; internodes long. Stolons flexible, to 40 cm, producing adventitious roots at nodes; internodes long. Stipules green, linear, lanceolate, ovate or spatulate, 5-25 × 1-8 mm, glabrous, margin usually entire, or remotely denticulate or ciliate, apex acuminate or acute; basal leaves long petiolate, petioles 5-20 cm, narrowly winged; petioles of leaves on stem and stolon shorter; blades of basal leaves deep green, triangular-cordate or ovate-cordate, 1.5-3 × 2-5.5 cm, both surfaces usually glabrous or sparsely puberulous along veins abaxially, base usually broadly cordate, rarely deeply cordate, sinus lunate, lobes large and spreading, margin sparsely and shallowly serrate, apex acute, rarely acuminate; blades of leaves on stem and stolon similar to those of basal leaves. Flowers light purplish or white, all produced from axils of leaves on stem and stolon; pedicels long, 2-bracteolate above middle; bracteoles linear. Sepals ovate-lanceolate, ca. 4 mm, apex acute, basal auricles very short, suborbicular, margin narrowly membranous. Petals narrowly obovate, ca. 7.5 mm, lateral ones dark purple striate, inside sparsely bearded or glabrous, anterior one shorter, conspicuously dark purple striate, apex rounded; spur short, ca. 2 mm; spur of 2 anterior stamens short and stout, subequaling anthers, apex rounded. Ovary glabrous; styles clavate, base slightly geniculate, gradually thickened upward; stigmas 2-lobed, lobes thick, erect, raised in central part, shortly beaked at base in between lobes in front, beak turning upward, with a rounded stigma hole at tip. Capsule oblong, 6-8 mm, ca. 3 mm in diam., glabrous, apex acute. Seeds yellowish, ovoid, ca. 1.5 mm, ca. 1 mm in diam., with a membranous wing on one side at base. Fl. Mar-Jun. 2n = 24*.

Moist and marshy places, grasslands, grassy places on mountain slopes, thickets, forest margins, fields, alongside houses; usually at lower elevation, below 3000 m. Anhui, Chongqing, Fujian, Gansu, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Heilongjiang, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Jilin, Liaoning, Shaanxi, Shandong, Sichuan, Taiwan, Yunnan, Zhejiang [Bhutan, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Papua New Guinea, Nepal, Russia, Thailand, Vietnam].

In FRPS (51: 105. 1991), the name Viola hamiltoniana D. Don was misapplied to this species.