THE VIOLET FAMILY (Violaceae)

Violaceae is a family of flowering plants consisting of about 800 species in 21 genera. It takes its name from the genus Viola, the violets and pansies. Though the best-known genus, Viola, is herbaceous, most members of the family are shrubs or small trees.

Some species have palmate shaped leaves or deeply dissected leaves. Many species are acaulescent (with no visible stem or a very short one), the leaves and flowers appearing to arise directly from the ground.

Inflorescences may have solitary flowers or in branched clusters and some species have cleistogamous flowers. These are small, inconspicuous, closed, self-pollinating flowers (cleistogamy=’closed marriage’) additional to, and often more fruitful than, the typically showy, petaled flowers (chasmogamy=’open marriage’) on the same plant. Flowers may be bilaterally symmetrical (zygomorphic) or radially symmetrical (actinomorphic) with a calyx of five sepals that are persistent after flowering and a corolla with 5 mostly unequal petals, the lowermost often spurred. The two lowermost stamens may have nectar producing appendages that project backwards into this spur.

In most species the fruits are capsules containing many tiny bead-like seeds that may be ejected as the capsule dries and splits by way of three seams. Some seeds possess a nutritious excrescence (elaiosome) that acts as bait to attract ants which further aids dispersal.

(source: Wikipedia)