Elin, That "weedy" violet might look different if you try the tender young leaves as a steamed vegetable or salad herb.
The /Viola canadensis/ kind of got out of control until I started harvesting it. You can eat the blossoms too. --Henry Fieldseth Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA, zone 4 --- On Tue, 1/11/11, [email protected] <[email protected]> wrote: I have all three types of common violas. My comment did refer to the small flowered viola as opposed to large flowered pansies. I love violas, and there are currently yellow and blue ones out there under the snow. I plant them every fall and sometimes have pansies. They are beautiful in the spring, but by June our heat has destroyed them and I replace them with something else. Common violets are a major weed in my yard, and I have pulled up several million to no avail. Part of my yard appears blue in the spring. (I'm not much of a grass person.) In my original comments I started to say that their veined leaves more closely resemble a Ginko leaf than those rosettes. (Sometimes I try to make a joke, but it usually falls flat). I have a great deal of experience with the structure of the common violet. The leaves break away easily from the rather succulent-like swelling at the base, and you have to get your fingers under this in order to eradicate the plant. Now that I think about it, there could be some similarity. But they still don't resemble those very interesting plants in the pictures. I had never seen anything like them and found them fascinating. Elin Johnson _______________________________________________ Alpine-l mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.science.uu.nl/mailman/listinfo/alpine-l
