Viola collina Bess.

Herbs perennial, 4-9 cm tall at anthesis, to 20 cm at fruiting. Rhizome erect or oblique, yellow-brown, 2-6 cm, robust, thick, densely noded, apex often branched; roots numerous, brownish. Leaves basal, rosulate; stipules lanceolate, 1-1.5 cm, membranous, base adnate to petioles, margin remotely fimbriate-denticulate, apex acuminate; petiole narrowly winged, 2-5 cm at anthesis, to 19 cm at fruiting, appressed puberulous or rarely glabrescent; leaf blade broadly ovate or suborbicular, 1-3.5 × 1-3 cm, conspicuously accrescent at fruiting, to 8 × ca. 6 cm, both surfaces sparsely puberulous or rarely glabrescent, base shallowly or deeply and narrowly sinuate, later cordate, margin shallowly and obtusely serrate, apex obtuse or acute, rarely acuminate. Flowers purplish, ca. 1.4 cm, long pedicellate; pedicels with 2 bracteoles ca. 6 mm at or below middle, puberulous or rarely glabrescent. Sepals oblong-lanceolate or lanceolate, 5-6 mm, ciliate and glandular, basal auricles short and obtuse. Petals whitish at base, upper and lateral ones obtuse at apex, lateral ones bearded or subglabrous, spur of anterior one white, shorter, ca. 3.5 mm, slightly curved upward, apex obtuse. Ovary puberulous; styles geniculate at base, gradually thickened upward, often sparsely papillose, apically curved downward forming a hooked beak, with a smaller stigma hole at tip of beak. Capsule globose, densely white puberulous or rarely glabrescent; fruit stalk usually curved downward when mature.

Anhui, Chongqing, Gansu, Guizhou, Hebei, Heilongjiang, Henan, Hubei, Jiangsu, Jilin, Liaoning, Nei Mongol, Ningxia, Shaanxi, Shandong, Shanxi, Sichuan, NW Yunnan, Zhejiang [Japan, Korea, Mongolia, Russia, Tajikistan; Europe].

Forests, forest margins, thickets, grasslands, grassy slopes, mountain valleys, shaded and moist places; below 2800 m.