Wild Pansy

Viola tricolor is a small plant of creeping and ramping habit, reaching at most 15 centimetres (6 in) in height, with flowers about 1.5 cm (1⁄2 in) in diameter. Its root is of the rhizome type with fine rootlets. The stem (acoli stem: which remains flush with the soil and from which leave the leaves and the flowering stalk) is hairless, sometimes downy and is branched. The plant has no leaf rosette at the base, unlike some other violets, such as Viola hirta. Leaves are, on the contrary, alternate. They are stalked at limbus oval, oblong or lanceolate and more or less serrated margins. The stipules are often quite developed, at least those of the upper leaves. These stipules are palm-lined or palmatised. The flowers are solitary and lateral, hoisted on long peduncles. They appear on aerial stems with more or less long internodes. The sepals are never larger than the corolla. It is 10 to 25 millimetres (3⁄8 to 1 in) long. This corolla can be purple, blue, yellow or white. It can most often be two-tone, yellow and purple. The tricolor shape, yellow, white and purple, is the most sought after. It flowers from April to September (in the Northern Hemisphere). The plants are hermaphroditic and self-fertile, pollinated by bees.

It is common almost everywhere on the Eurasian continent, near the sea or inland, at altitudes ranging from 0 to 2,700 metres (8,900 ft). It grows in open grasslands, wastelands, mainly on acidic or neutral soils and usually in partial shade. It is also found on the banks and in the alluviums.

In Iceland, Viola tricolor is known to be a host for at least two species of plant pathogenic fungi, Pleospora herbarum and Ramularia agrestis.

As an ornamental and medicinal plant, the wild pansy has been cultivated since the Middle Ages and bred in Britain since 1810. As some of its names imply, V. tricolor and other plants in the Viola genus (such as V. odorata, or sweet violet), have a long history of use in herbalism and folk medicine, particularly Iranian, Greco-Arab, Ayurvedic and Unani traditional health systems. Traditionally, it has been used to treat cardiovascular conditions, epilepsy, skin diseases, burns and eczema, and as an expectorant for respiratory problems such as bronchitis, asthma, and cold symptoms, and modern research has begun to corroborate these traditionally held knowledges and uses. Studies have shown V. tricolor extract has antinociceptive, immunosuppressant and anti-inflammatory properties, making it a potential treatment for autoimmune disorders. The extract is known to be antimicrobial, sedative, antiepileptic, and diuretic, as well as potentially antiviral and antiprotozoal. V. tricolor L extract has shown vasorelaxant, cardio-relaxant, hypotensive, and cardio protective effects. Some studies have discovered potential anti-cancer properties, where the extract (primarily the ethyl acetate component) has been attributed to induced apoptosis and inhibited angiogenesis in cancer cells. …

According to Roman mythology, the wild pansy turned into the Love-in-idleness as Cupid shot one of his arrows at the imperial votaress, but missed and instead struck it. As Cupid is the god of desire, affection and erotic love, the flower's juice received the trait, to act as a love potion. Its name relates to the use of the flower, as it is often used for idleness or vileness acts. According to Greek mythology, Zeus fell in love with a young woman named Io and provoked jealousy to his wife Hera. He transformed the girl into a heifer and kept her grazing at his feet. For pity on the diet of herbs to which he submitted the beloved, he caused the earth to produce beautiful flowers that he called Io. Another Greek legend has it that the delicate white flowers were worshiped by Eros. To inhibit this worship, Aphrodite colored them, which resulted in tricolor coloration. No. 1 of 3 Lyrics, H. 161, written for piano in 1921 by British composer Frank Bridge, is called "Heart's Ease".

Literature. Long before cultivated pansies were released into the trade in 1839, V. tricolor was associated with thought in the "language of flowers", often by its alternative name of pansy (from the French pensée, "thought"): hence Ophelia's often quoted line in Shakespeare's Hamlet, "There's pansies, that's for thoughts". (What Shakespeare had in mind was V. …