McMark,
Not sure whether it is of interest to you or not but the violet is
Viola grypoceras var exilis, apparently with a common name of 'Cyclamen Leaf Violet'. Thought you might like to know that it is in good company. I used to grow this violet years ago then it died out, but about 3 years ago I received it in a pot of
Trillium luteum from a friend of mine and it has appeared in a few nearby pots since. The leaves are wonderful, and so reminiscent of
Cyclamen at a glance. The look great with your
Cyclamen clump.
Thanks Paul. I didn't say much about the Violet ID in my post about
Cyclamen purpurescens, as it's confusing. So I refreshed my memory on it... I have believed the variegated violet to be a variegated form of
V. koreana, most often under the name '
Syletta' or '
Sylettas'. Go to google images and you'll see that it matches my plant. Then go do the same google image search for
Viola grypoceras var exilis, and one pretty much sees the same plant... so I wonder if they're synonyms.
So I dig deeper, The Flora of China, IPNI.ORG, The Plant List, and Tropicos
do not list
Viola grypoceras var. exilis... the only varieties listed among those four definitive resources is V. grypoceras
var. barbata,
var. pubescens (both synonyms of the species), and
var. ripensis (status unknown to me). Flora of China gives a clue under the description for
V. grypoceras "
One of us [the authors of Flora of China -Ohba] prefers to treat plants with stems nearly procumbent or creeping as Viola grypoceras var. exilis (Miquel) Nakai".
There is no published name V. "koreana", although there is the name
V. coreana... sometimes plants named "coreana" are misspelled "koreana". Only The Plant List has an entry: "Viola coreana Boissieu is an unresolved name".
Found a nursery site that lists V. coreana as a synonym of V. grypoceras:
http://www.rareplants.de/shop/product.asp?P_ID=11669Turned to my large volume Flora of Japan by Ohwi, where more varieties of
V. grypoceras are listed,
var. rhizomata, ...aha! found
var. exilis, for which the given synonyms are
V. sylvestris var. exilis and
V. coreana... the synonymy connection made. To boot, there is
var. imberbis and
var. hichitoana.
So, it would seem that
grypoceras var. exilis is most likely correct, but this plant is widely available under both
grypoceras var. exilis and
koreana (sic), and one sees the combination
grypoceras 'Syletta' and
koreana 'Syletta' used interchangeably. The type species is, I'm sure, green leaved, and the beautiful silver marble-leaf form must be a sport of it. In spring it is adorable in flower, tiny tiny tiny with flowers on stems nearly at ground level.
Phew... that was easy
I will probably move this message to it's own topic on violets, although it can be apropos in this topic, as this variegated violet is known as the "
cyclamen leaf violet".
