Viola hederacea Labill. in Malaya

• Main Author: Moore, D.M.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: 1962
• Subjects: Antarctic; Kangaroo Island; The Antarctic; Antarc*
• Online Access: http://www.repository.naturalis.nl/record/525968; http://www.repository.naturalis.nl/document/566388

Becker (1917, 1925) considered Viola hederacea Labill., within which he placed V. sieberiana Spreng. (as V. hederacea var. Sieberi Hook, f.), to be the only member of Section Erpetion (Sweet) Becker and to belong to the ‘Antarctic Floristic Element’. V. hederacea occurs widely in temperate southern and eastern Australia (Fig. 1) where it is somewhat variable, particularly in leaf shape, and may grade rather confusedly into V. sieberiana, as on Kangaroo Island, S. Australia. Whilst examining a collection of violets on loan from the herbarium of the Papua and New Guinea Department of Forests, Lae, a specimen from Malaya was readily identified as V. hederacea: — MALAYA: Pahang Cameron Highlands, summit of Batu Brinchang, ‘exposed escarpment; stoloniferous herb in thin grassy sward; flowers white with purple centre’, 2031 m., 1. ix. 1956, H. M. Burkill 805 (LAE). The collection is identical with the most typical form in Australia, having the rosettes of leaves and flowers at intervals along the stolons, reniform leaves 1.4—2.0 times as long as broad with cordate base and showing the ‘hederaceous’ outline; the lateral petals are markedly bearded and the filiform style has a geniculate base and a simple stigma.