A low, hairy-leaved violet that flowers from March, its deep blue-purple flowers strongly perfumed and spreading by runners
Sweet violet — Viola odorata.
Nature · Wildflowers & flowers
Sweet violet
Native · flowers Mar–May · woodland edges and hedge banks
Viola odorata — Violaceae
Sweet violet is the scented violet of hedge banks and woodland edges, flowering from March. Its deep violet flowers were picked for perfume and posies for centuries, and it is now less common than it once was, probably because of over-picking. Fragrance is its best field mark, since the look-alike common dog-violet has none.
How to spot them
- ▸Deep violet-blue, sweetly scented flowers, sometimes white or lilac, appearing from March
- ▸Heart-shaped, hairy, deep green leaves forming a low rosette, with creeping runners that root at the tips
- ▸Look-alike: common dog-violet (Viola riviniana) is almost identical but has no scent, no runners and a paler, notched spur
- ▸The scent is short-lived: beta-ionone in the flowers temporarily shuts off the smell receptors, so the fragrance seems to fade
- ▸Grows in woods, hedgerows and woodland edges across the UK
How to know it
Legend says you can smell this flower only once because it steals your sense of smell — a chemical in it does temporarily switch off the receptors
Sweet violet — beta-ionone, explained by the Woodland Trust.
Pressed flowers of this violet from an empress's grave were found in a locket on her husband's body when he died
Sweet violet — Josephine's grave violets found in Napoleon's locket.
Used for perfume since classical Greece and candied to decorate cakes, this woodland-edge violet has become scarcer, probably through over-picking
Sweet violet.
Persephone was gathering spring flowers including this one when Hades carried her off to the underworld
Sweet violet.
Almost identical to the unscented dog-violet, this species is told apart by its fragrance
Sweet violet — the common dog-violet is scentless.
Quick-fire facts
- •Family Violaceae; scientific name Viola odorata, the epithet meaning scented
- •The Woodland Trust gives the flowering season as March to May and the origin as native
- •It is becoming less common, probably due to over-picking, according to the Woodland Trust
- •Beta-ionone, a compound in the flowers, temporarily shuts off smell receptors — the origin of the legend that you can smell it only once
- •Persephone was picking violets when abducted by Hades, in Greek myth
- •Pressed violets from Josephine's grave were found in Napoleon's locket when he died
- •Edible: flowers are candied for cakes or used in salads, but the Woodland Trust urges leaving wild plants as nectar for woodland butterflies and suggests growing your own
- •Used in herbal medicine for headaches and insomnia, and in medieval Britain as an early household deodorant, says the Woodland Trust
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Sources
- Woodland Trust — Sweet violet (Viola odorata)