Viola pilosa
Content
Description
Perennial;
Leaves 1-10 by 1-6½ cm, 1-2 times as long as broad, ovate, deeply cordate at base, acute to acuminate, serrate or serrate-crenate, pubescent to hirsute above and beneath, especially on veins, rarely glabrous, usually pale green;
Stipules 7-30 by 1½-5 mm, lanceolate, Jong-acute, long-fimbriate, pubescent, fuscous or green.
Flowers (5-)8-14 mm long, purple to white with darker veins;
Sepals 3½-9 by 1-2 mm, linear-lanceolate, acute, entire or denticulate, usually pilose especially near base, ciliate;
Petals 1½-4 times as long as broad;
Capsule 5-10 mm, ellipsoid, glabrous or pubescent in centre of valves.
Distribution
Asia-Temperate, Asia-Tropical: India present; Jawa (Jawa present); Lesser Sunda Is. present (Bali present); Maluku (Maluku present); Thailand (Thailand present), Burma present, Buru present, Central Sumatra present, Ceram present, Himalayas present, Mt Bonthain present, Mt Kerintji present, SW. Celebes present, Timor present
Himalayas, India, Burma, Thailand, China, in Malesia: Central Sumatra (Mt Kerintji), Java, Lesser Sunda Islands (Bali, Timor), SW. Celebes (Mt Bonthain), Moluccas (Buru, Ceram). .
Notes
This is a rather variable species within which no satisfactory formal subdivision seems possible at present. The variation is principally in such characters as size, leaf-shape and indumentum, which are notoriously subject to environmental modification in this genus and no correlation can be detected between such variation and distribution. Conspicuously large and robust specimens, undoubtedly the result of particularly sheltered habitats, have been separated as V. burgersdijkii and V. sarmentosa. The most distinctive populations within V. pilosa are those from the Moluccas. Two collections from Buru (TOXOPEUS on 1 and 3 III 1922), at different elevations on Mt Fakal, superficially resemble V. sumatrana in leaf-colour, and in having glabrous, more or less entire calycine appendages; they are undoubtedly, however, subglabrous forms of V. pilosa. Material from Mt Pinaia in Ceram (STRESEMANN 302, EYMA 2259) is superficially like V. papuana in its coriaceous leaves and like V. kjellbergii in its rounded calycine appendages; it differs from both in having free stipules and from each in other characters. It is possible that these populations are worthy of subspecific status, but further material would be desirable since some of these characters are undoubtedly the result of the exposed alpine habitat which the species occupies in Ceram.
V. celebica BECKER was described from a SARASIN collection on Mt Bonthain in SW. Celebes. The undistributed collection was destroyed at Berlin, but the subsequent extensive collections by BUNNEMEIJER from Mt Bonthain leave little doubt that it is referable to V. pilosa.
It may be that a fragment of the type is present in the diary of the SARASINS which is preserved at the Botanical Institute at Basel, but it has not been possible to examine this.
V. celebica BECKER was described from a SARASIN collection on Mt Bonthain in SW. Celebes. The undistributed collection was destroyed at Berlin, but the subsequent extensive collections by BUNNEMEIJER from Mt Bonthain leave little doubt that it is referable to V. pilosa.
It may be that a fragment of the type is present in the diary of the SARASINS which is preserved at the Botanical Institute at Basel, but it has not been possible to examine this.
Citation
BOTSSIEU & CAPITAINE 1910 – In: Bull. Soc. Bot. Fr.: 337
Miq. 1858 – In: Fl. Ind. Bat.: 114
Ridl. 1935 – In: J. Bot.: 16
BECKER 1923 – In: Beih. Bot. Centralbl.: 109
Blume 1825: Bijdr.: 57
BECKER 1916 – In: Beih. Bot. Centralbl.: 256
BACK. 1911: Schoolfl.: 66
BECKER 1923 – In: Beih. Bot. Centralbl.: 103
KORTH. 1848 – In: Ned. Kruidk. Arch.: 357
Koord. 1912 – In: Exk. Fl. Java: 628
DOCTERS VAN LEEUWEN 1927 – In: Trop. Natuur: 187
BACK. & BAKH.f. 1963 – In: Fl. Java: 195
Miq. 1858 – In: Fl. Ind. Bat.: 113
BACK. & SLOOT. 1924: Handb. Theeonkr: 180: t. 180
Miq. 1858 – In: Fl. Ind. Bat.: 113
BOISSIEU & CAPITAINE 1910 – In: Bull. Soc. Bot. Fr.: 340
OOSTSTR. & H. J. LAM 1945 – In: Blumea: 594
BECKER 1923 – In: Beih. Bot. Centralbl.: 106
Blume 1933 – In: Verh. Kon. Ak. Wet. A'dam: 184
BURGERSDIJK 1852 – In: Miq., Pl. Jungh. 1: 120
BECKER 1916 – In: Beih. Bot. Centralbl.: 416
Miq. 1858 – In: Fl. Ind. Bat.: 113