Cream Violet – shows up out of nowhere

A Curious Plant Story 

The exception and the unexpected sometimes lead to insights. The lessons may come much later. But it seems worthwhile to record surprises and get feedback.

In this case we wanted local seeds of cream violet (Viola striata) for the Somme restoration, but it was “long sought with despair.” Then we found it, in our own seed-production garden. How could that be? Where had it come from?

Cream violet emerges in a seed production garden

As I remember, I long ago ran across a big colony of what was probably this plant in nearby Chipilly Woods, but it was such a massive, solid patch and so showy that I pegged it as a horticultural violet escaped from some settler’s garden - not worth my time. Later I found an old record that this showy native species had once been common locally. What happened to it? I went back and looked, repeatedly, but never found it again. 

Higley and Raddin (1891) called cream violet a plant of “Low grounds and moist woods. Infrequent or rare. Evanston, Rogers Park, Wilmette” and south. 

Pepoon (1927) cites reports from “Evanston, Wilmette, and Pine, Miller, Ind” but adds that “Collectors today do not find it at the last named stations.” Writing of the Des Plaines valley, he says “the great white violet (Viola striata) is common and very striking.” Is it today?

Swink and Wilhelm show no dot, only a triangle, for Cook County, indicating that they found at least one published record but no herbarium specimen that would validate it. 

Wilhelm and Rericha list it for mesic woodlands, alluvial habitats along streams and rivers, but comment that it can be “weedy” in shaded lawns “where it can form massive colonies.” They do give it a dot for Cook County. But if it’s so weedy, why can’t we find it?

For 49 years, the volunteers of the North Branch Restoration Project have shared with the staff of the Cook County Forest Preserves a goal of restoring lost plant species to the North Branch Preserves. The site where Eriko Kojima and I are stewards, Somme Prairie Grove, had 232 native plant species when we started. Now it has 488, according to our records. But no cream violet. 

As to how five plants of this species ended up scattered in three seed of our gardens "production turfs" in May 2026, it would be just speculation. But guessing and possible theories seem acceptable in a blog post, so here goes:

One possibility is that we gathered its seeds on occasion when we thought we were gathering Labrador violet (Viola labradorica), a formerly threatened species that is now doing well the in our seed production beds (and in many parts of Somme Woods). When not blooming, these two violet species are generally similar. In the garden, the two grow together. 

Our only other theory is that it had been in the yard all along. Strangely, when Linda and I moved into our house (adjacent to Somme Woods), we found the botany of our lawn and little-tended perennial borders to be rich with native species including yellow woodland violet, trout lily, spring cress, Michigan lily, spring beauty, common blue violet, wild plum, and others.

When we established our seed beds, we didn’t dig up or herbicide. We just planted rare seed and weeded out the species that we didn’t need for seeds. Thus we now revel in great beds of mixed robin’s plantain, dwarf skullcap, white bear sedge, awnless graceful sedge, two-flowered Cynthia, cream vetchling, yellow star grass, and on and on.    

Close up of seed production garden featuring yellow star grass, robin's plantain, and cream vetchling in a turf of bastard toadflax, wild geranium, shooting star, blue grass, and others. 

Both of us remember seeing white violets in the past, but dismissing them as Labrador violets that, as blue flowers often do, produced all white variants from time to time. But this year, those white flowers caught our eyes in part because they were bigger and bloomed after the Labrador violets had mostly stopped. (Swink and Wilhelm give Labrador bloom dates as April 2 to June 2 and cream dates as April 26 to July 3 - a small overlap.)

In this photo, the cream violet is growing among wild licorice (Galium circaezans), grove sandwort (Moehringia lateriflora), wood anemone (Anemone quinquifolia), wild geranium (Geranium maculatum) and others. Here, last year and this, we have weeded out some golden Alexanders, geranium, and Solomon's seal. The violet can be seen extending long branching stems, if you look close. 

And why haven’t we ever found it again in Chipilly Woods? As befits a native species called “weedy,” perhaps it stays semi-dormant and only flowers after disturbances. Certainly disturbances are common in floodplains - following ice jams and log jams which can wreak a lot of ecological havoc - or where piles of flotsam kill the vegetation beneath, only to be washed away again by another flood - leaving bare soil or a weakened turf. Especially in such situations, native weeds have a valuable role in the ecosystem, helping to restore a diverse turf following a disturbance. Might cream violet function as such a "healing weed?" (Many conservative species don’t establish well on bare soil but do so in a competitive turf.) Our seed gardens are subject to constant disturbance. We "graze out" species that are no longer priorities for seed production. (See "grazing" Endnote.) Perhaps last year's garden disturbances were right for a few cream violets to show themselves.

So, what’s the real story?

Perhaps we’ll find more.

For now it’s a sweet mystery. 

And then, very likely - we did find out.

On reading this post, the hard-working Kathy Garness sent me this note:

I believe I gave those seeds to you in 2007 or 2008. You had told me to watch for the seed capsules to be fully erected before collecting. I had always wondered whether they were viable or not.

When I learned from Susanne Masi that they were a Plants of Concern species, I had rescued as many plants as I could - with permission - from my friend Shirley’s garden when she passed away and her home was sold and the lawn was going to be made ‘suburban-aesthetic-friendly’ by Chemlawn treatments. It’s quite possible the plants are native there - a good population grew next door to Shirley’s in an unmanaged semi-shaded area. 

One of my young students discovered Viola canadensis in their back yard (I went over to confirm) right across Thatcher Woods on Edgewood in River Forest. I know Viola canadensis is on the Thatcher Woods species list but I’m not sure if it has been recently seen. 

I also gave some seed to Jim Steffen at Chicago Botanic Garden, I believe, and some plants to Barbara Birmingham. I think I rescued about 60 plants. 

Their remaining siblings and offspring are still very happy in my yard but not aggressive.

Kathy Garness

Thanks, Kathy, for the news and for all your generous teaching, art, and conservation. (I used to think I remembered every detail of every species. Perhaps I've forgot some.)

End Notes

The restoration goals for Somme Prairie Grove are discussed here. 

What was the reference that suggested that cream violet was a part of the flora of Chipilly or Somme Woods? I believe it was in a 1908 study. But I can’t find it now in that long report. Where might that reference be? Some other old text? How much time do I spend researching texts? For a blog post? If you should find it, tell us. Thanks.  

Really? "Grazing by hand?" Our process is something like grazing in that we don't pull out roots most of the time, but just clip or snap off the aboveground plants, as a bison or a rabbit might do. Notice clipped off stems of Solomon's seal in the last photo. It's a more subtle change. Many species continue to be part of the turf, despite our predations, but at reduced size and numbers, as a period of "grazing" gives diverse other plants a chance to get well established and compete better. Others species do drop out, as more conservative species fully out-compete them. Again, our goal is not restoration but instead producing seeds of key species for restoration elsewhere.