Viola villosa Walter

Acaulescent, with a short, oblique to erect rootstock, downy throughout, varying to glabrous except for the appressed-hairy upper surface of the lvs; lvs tending to be evergreen, often color-patterned, flat on the ground or nearly so, spreading out to form a rosette, relatively small, the blade 1.5–7.5 cm, broadly cordate-ovate to cordate-orbicular or reniform-cordate, usually obtuse or rounded above, commonly with a narrow basal sinus, all merely crenate or subentire; stipules entire to fimbriate; fls short-pedunculate, violet, 1.5–2 cm wide, the pet relatively narrow and mostly directed forward, so that the fls seldom appear fully open, the 3 lower pet bearded, the spur large and globose; cleistogamous fls on prostrate to erect peduncles; frs ovoid or ovoid-cylindric; seeds brown; 2n=54. Dry or well drained, often sandy soil in open woods and clearings; se. U.S. from Fla. to Tex., n. to Va., Tenn., and s. Ind., and occasionally to N.Y. and s. Conn. Apr., May. (V. hirsutula, the form with the lvs glabrous beneath)