Cream Violet – Now you see it; now you don’t.

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 taking my time. Later I found an old record that this showy native species had been common here. So I went back and looked, repeatedly, but never found it again. 

Higley and Raddin (1891) called this 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 published records but no herbarium specimen that would validate them. 

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 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 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 garden (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 seed and weeded out the species that we didn’t need more seeds for and seemed in the way. 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 rare 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 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.)

And why haven’t we ever found it again in Chipilly Woods? As befits a native species called “weedy,” perhaps it stays semi-dormant only pops up in flower 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. (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 - as we weed out species that are no longer priorities for seed production. 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. 

 

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 there. 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.