Large, flat, yellow or violet or two-tone pansy-faces, 2 to 3.5 cm across, on a creeping perennial in an upland limestone pasture
Mountain pansy, Viola lutea.
Nature · Wildflowers & flowers
Mountain pansy
Native · flowers May–Jul · upland grassland, limestone pasture and old mine spoil
Viola lutea — Violaceae
Mountain pansy is the biggest-flowered of Britain's wild pansies, a creeping perennial of upland pastures, mostly on limestone or mineral-rich soils in northern England, Wales and Scotland. Its flowers are yellow, violet or a mixture of both, and each is 2–3.5 cm across. It even grows on the toxic spoil heaps of old lead mines, where few other plants can survive.
How to spot them
- ▸Flat, pansy-faced flowers 2–3.5 cm across, bright yellow, or violet, or yellow and violet together
- ▸Perennial with creeping underground stems that spread into low tufts, not an annual like the field pansy
- ▸Lobed leaf-like stipules; oval leaves, not deeply cut
- ▸Grows on upland limestone grassland, ledges, and old lead-mine spoil in the Pennines, Peak District, Wales and Scotland
- ▸Look-alikes: wild pansy (violet and cream, smaller, annual or short-lived) and field pansy (small, cream-yellow); the large flower and upland habitat separate mountain pansy from both
How to know it
It grows on spoil heaps of old lead mines in the Pennines and Peak District, tolerating metal levels that kill most plants
Mountain pansy — a metal-tolerant plant.
The largest-flowered of Britain's wild pansies, yellow or violet or both, contrasted with a smaller, violet-and-cream lowland cousin
Mountain pansy vs wild pansy.
Plantlife's Deep Dale reserve in the Derbyshire Peak District and Winskill Stones near Settle are places where this yellow-faced upland plant flowers from May to July
Mountain pansy — Plantlife.
One of the species crossed by nineteenth-century gardeners to produce the large-flowered garden pansy
Mountain pansy contributed to the garden pansy, Viola × wittrockiana.
The specific epithet is Latin for 'yellow', although the flowers may also be purple or a combination
Viola lutea — mountain pansy.
Quick-fire facts
- •Native perennial of upland grassland, most often on limestone or metal-rich soil in northern England, Wales and Scotland
- •Flowers May to July (Plantlife); yellow, violet or bicoloured, and the largest of Britain's wild pansies
- •Family Violaceae; lutea means yellow
- •Found on ledges beyond the reach of grazing animals at Winskill Stones, Yorkshire Dales, and is a star species of Deep Dale, Derbyshire (Plantlife)
- •Tolerates soils contaminated by lead and zinc, which is why it is often found on old lead-mining spoil in the Peak District and North Pennines
- •One of the wild species used in breeding the large garden pansy in the early nineteenth century
- •Not a protected plant but a good indicator of unimproved upland grassland
- •Distinguish from the field pansy, whose flowers are 15 mm across and creamy-yellow (Plantlife)
Drill it — 7 cards
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Sources
- Plantlife — Winskill Stones Nature Reserve
- Plantlife — Deep Dale Nature Reserve
- Plantlife — Field pansy