Common Dog-violet - Viola riviniana

Low to short plant. Leaves heart shaped, long stalked. Flowers deep bluish-purple 14 to 25 mm not scented. Spur rather stout, whitish or pale purple, often upcurved, notched or furrowed towards the tip.

Viola reichenbachiana and Viola odorata

Sepal appendages are long (more than 1.5mm) - this is the part that projects backwards towards the stems.  Sepals and lanceolate (long and pointed). Spur is paler than petals, and usually whitish, broad, curved and notched at the end.

Side-on photos showing the spur and sepals are needed.  This cannot be identified from a 'full-face' photo.

Deciduous woodland, grassy heath, old pastures, waysides.

April to June.

Perennial.

Fairly common throughout Britain.

Fairly frequent in Leicestershire and Rutland. In the 1979 Flora survey of Leicestershire it was found in 299 of the 617 tetrads.

In the current Checklist, (Jeeves 2011) it is Native and Locally frequent