Viola selkirkii
This little violet occurs in scattered locations throughout the northern quarter of Minnesota but is especially frequent in cool moist woods near the North Shore. It can be found in upland and lowland White Cedar swamps, in moist areas in Sugar Maple forests, and in the case of this one on the edge of an ephemeral stream in a Paper Birch forest.
''Viola selkirkii'' is a species of violet known by the common names Selkirk's violet and great-spur violet. It is native throughout the Northern Hemisphere, its distribution circumboreal.
This species is a rhizomatous perennial herb with hairy, heart-shaped leaves. The flowers are up to 1.5 centimeters wide and are violet in color. They lack the beards that some other violets have. Each flower has a spur up to 7 millimeters long. The fruit is a capsule up to 6 millimeters wide. Flowering.. more