Violets

This lovely plant (flowers shown above) is one of our most common native species. It makes a beautiful groundcover, especially in spring. The leaves of this plant are favored as food by caterpillars of fritillary butterflies. Even if you spend a lot of time watching violets you might not see the caterpillar because it is very secretive. It will leave the plant and hide out in dead leaves nearby, perhaps only feeding at night. The Regal Fritillary is one of the rarest butterflies in the state, so you likely won't see that one. But if we're lucky, maybe our violets will rear a Great Spangled Fritillary, like the one on the milkweed plant shown here. (You won't see butterflies on the violets because they don't make nectar at the right time. ) But in the late summer check out milkweeds and joe pye weeds for these lovely butterflies. 

You may also see the white Canada violet, Viola canadensis. This one may be a bit more tolerant of sun than the blue violet, and it grows a bit taller, sometimes in mounds. Its leaves are also used by fritillary caterpillars. 

So why do some people think violets are weeds? Well, it is true that violets make many seeds and spread a lot.  This is a good feature in a ground cover, and is it really so bad for lawns? When selective herbicides like 2,4-D became widely available, everything but grass in the lawn became a weed, because this herbicide kills everything but grass in the lawn. Nowadays people concerned about the plants and animals we share the planet with may prefer to consider plants like violets, which are after all native plants, to be desirable lawn residents.