Wild pansy
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The wild pansy (Viola tricolor) grows throughout Britain on both cultivated and waste ground. It is also found on grassland and sand dunes.
It grows up to 12 inches (30 centimetres) high, producing leafy branching stems which each bear several flowers. The leaves are oval in shape with shallow blunt teeth. Leaf-like stipules, with deep lobes, grow at the base of each leaf stalk.
The name “tricolor” refers to the fact that wild pansies can be yellow, violet-blue or pink, although the last of these is less common. A combination of colours, along with white, is often found in the same flower. Flowering takes place from April to September. When ripe, the fruit capsule splits into three parts.
The natural attractiveness of the wild pansy has encouraged horticulturalists to produce hybrids with large flowers and reduced stalk growth that are now familiar garden plants.
The name “pansy” is a corruption of the French “pensée”, which brings to mind the line from Shakespeare’s Hamlet: “There is pansies, that’s for thought”. The plant was supposed to be a symbol of remembrance and it is also associated with love – hence the alternative names of “heartsease” and “love-in-idleness”. In “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” Oberon squeezes the juice of heartsease into Titania’s eyes to make her fall in love with Bottom.
It grows up to 12 inches (30 centimetres) high, producing leafy branching stems which each bear several flowers. The leaves are oval in shape with shallow blunt teeth. Leaf-like stipules, with deep lobes, grow at the base of each leaf stalk.
The name “tricolor” refers to the fact that wild pansies can be yellow, violet-blue or pink, although the last of these is less common. A combination of colours, along with white, is often found in the same flower. Flowering takes place from April to September. When ripe, the fruit capsule splits into three parts.
The natural attractiveness of the wild pansy has encouraged horticulturalists to produce hybrids with large flowers and reduced stalk growth that are now familiar garden plants.
The name “pansy” is a corruption of the French “pensée”, which brings to mind the line from Shakespeare’s Hamlet: “There is pansies, that’s for thought”. The plant was supposed to be a symbol of remembrance and it is also associated with love – hence the alternative names of “heartsease” and “love-in-idleness”. In “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” Oberon squeezes the juice of heartsease into Titania’s eyes to make her fall in love with Bottom.
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