Viola sikkimensis W. Becker

Herbs perennial, acaulescent. Rhizome short, 2-2.5 cm, stout, 4-7 mm in diam., densely noded, often with brown remains of stipules. Stolon to more than 10 cm; internodes longer, producing rootlets at nodes. Leaves basal; stipules brown, lanceolate, 1-1.3 cm, margin long fimbriate-dentate; petiole 3-10 cm, glabrous; leaf blade abaxially gray-green, adaxially deep green and nitid, broadly ovate or suborbicular, 1.5-5 × 1.5-4 cm, both surfaces glabrous or sparsely puberulous, base deeply cordate, margin densely and shallowly crenate, apex obtuse. Flowers white or purplish; pedicels exceeding leaves, glabrous, 2-bracteolate above middle; bracteoles subopposite, linear, margin remotely denticulate. Sepals narrowly lanceolate, 5-6 mm, glabrous, 3-veined, basal auricles rounded or remotely dentate at apex. Petals oblong-obovate, 1-1.2 cm × 4-4.5 mm, lateral ones glabrous, anterior one purple veined, shorter, 1-1.2 cm (spur included); spur ca. 2 mm, ca. 2.5 mm in diam., slightly enlarged; spur of 2 anterior stamens angular, slightly longer than anthers, apex obtuse. Ovary conic, glabrous; styles clavate, gradually thickened upward; stigmas flat at apices, broadly margined on lateral sides and abaxially, shortly beaked at apex, beak straight. Capsule ovoid-orbicular. Fl. Apr-May, fr. May-Jun.

Himalaya (Nepal, Sikkim), Assam, Burma, W. China.

SE Xizang, Yunnan [?Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal].

1600-2400 m

Mountain forests, forest margins, streamsides, riversides; 1500-2500 m.

Viola hookeri Thomson & W. Becker (1916), not Franchet (1886).