Amazing plant and very good finding!
It seems that there are two kinds of leaves no? Crenated ones ( that remind me of viola subsinuata but let's an american expert confirm..) and no crenated ones? Can you tell us which plants the flowers belong to?

The flower type reminds me of a cultivar grown, here in europe ( and no crenated leaves)..There is an old posting in this forum that I can't found out.
Because the name was difficult to remind a friend of us - famous etii ;-)) -renamed it 'burchelli'..which is the latin name for zebra!!
This plant was coming from italia..( but maybe from somewhere else before!?) Here is a picture: http://violets.free.fr/Photos%20bis/viola%20burchelli%20groupe.jpg ( and better pictures on the same webpage)

Do you think they are both the same?

Probably violets are simply able to make spontaneously some stripped petals!?

Hi !

I agree with Nath': it seems there are 2 violas growing together and ask the same question than her: Can you tell us which one flowers belong to ?

I thought that viola found in Italy was nameless nathalie ?! 'Burchelli' is not too bad in fact ;oP I like it. Anyway, blooms are much alike the one we have here. I don't believe much in a cross resulting (but who knows ?) but do think it's a kind of mutation...

All the best - Thierry :-)

I agree with Nath': it seems there are 2 violas growing together and ask the same question than her: Can you tell us which one flowers belong to ?
Thank you both. I took that pic in 2006. There were only the speckled blooms in the clump, no other type. I then saw the clump in 2007, but there were no blooms, or at least none that I saw. Possibly life got in the way and I missed them.

I am not finding the clump where it was last season, but do see one small plant (plantlet?) with the crenated leaves in the area. I'm not sure now if there were other shaped leaves on it or not. They are growing at the edge of the woods and there is a lot of winter leaf cover in the area. I'm hoping the bigger clump is maybe just late emerging, and hoping I did not loose it to the drought last year and the competition of the surrounding things growing wildly around it. I have just left it grow where I found it in 2005.

This plant was coming from italia..( but maybe from somewhere else before!?) Here is a picture: http://violets.free.fr/Photos%20bis/viola%20burchelli%20groupe.jpg ( and better pictures on the same webpage)

Do you think they are both the same?
Nathlie, I posted a clickable lic to the pic you provided the URL for above. Note it is just for the one pic...and it is not possible to see others on the same webpage. No, I don't think it appears the same...the one from your pic, has much more purple in the blooms, in my opinion.

Hopefully the bigger clump (my pic above)of this little sweetie will emerge yet this season, and hopefully bloom. Even if it doesn't bloom I can verify if there are 2 different leaf types on one plant and which ones are the newer leaves and which are the older ones. I will post more when I see it and can look it over better, and maybe provide more pics.

Thanks to you both. I appreciate it.

Sue

Here is a link that might be useful:

If it's not some escaped cultivar... the thought crossed my mind that the flower coloration looks very similar to tulips that get a certain virus that causes coloration abnormalities. Maybe it's some sort of virus?

Here is a link that might be useful: info about that tulip virus