Herb. No. 239 · Violaceae
Woodland violet of Europe; a cottage escape in eastern North America.
Native · Europe · West Asia
Sweet violet
Viola odorata
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The April violet of scent, sugar, and a syrup the color of dusk — a woodland edge plant, not a summer bed.
Sweet violet is a low European perennial that naturalizes in shade. The flower is candied, made into syrup, and folded into spring salads. Leaves are edible when young. The scent is famous and fugitive — you smell it, then you don’t, which is a trick of ionones on the nose, not a failing of the plant. Traditional pectoral teas exist; this plate is food and a shade-garden plant, not a cough protocol.
Flavor
Perfume, then nothing, then perfume again. Sugar holds it.
Parts used
Flower · Young leaf
Helpful
- True perfume
- Spreads into a useful carpet
- Shade-tolerant
Cautions
- Can run in a kind lawn
- Flowers are brief
- Scent fades in a hot room