What is "viola tricolor"

Pansy \Pan"sy\, n.; pl. Pansies. [F. Pens['e]e thought, pansy, fr. penser to think, L. pensare to weigh, ponder. See Pensive.] (Bot.) A plant of the genus Viola ( Viola tricolor) and its blossom, originally purple and yellow. Cultivated varieties have very large flowers of a great diversity of colors. Called also heart's-ease, love-in-idleness, and many other quaint names.

Violaquercitrin \Vi`o*la*quer"cit*rin\, n. (Chem.) A yellow crystalline glucoside obtained from the pansy ( Viola tricolor), and decomposing into glucose and quercitrin.

Violet \Vi"o*let\, n. [F. violette a violet (cf. violet violet-colored), dim. of OF. viole a violet, L. viola; akin to Gr. ?. Cf. Iodine.]

1. (Bot.) Any plant or flower of the genus Viola, of many species. The violets are generally low, herbaceous plants, and the flowers of many of the species are blue, while others are white or yellow, or of several colors, as the pansy ( Viola tricolor).

   Note: The cultivated sweet violet is Viola odorata of Europe. The common blue violet of the eastern United States is Viola cucullata; the sand, or bird-foot, violet is Viola pedata.

2. The color of a violet, or that part of the spectrum farthest from red. It is the most refrangible part of the spectrum.

3. In art, a color produced by a combination of red and blue in equal proportions; a bluish purple color.
   --Mollett.

4. (Zo["o]l.) Any one of numerous species of small violet-colored butterflies belonging to Lyc[ae]na, or Rusticus, and allied genera.

   Corn violet. See under Corn.

   Dame's violet. (Bot.) See Damewort.

   Dogtooth violet. (Bot.) See under Dogtooth.

   Water violet (Bot.), an aquatic European herb ( Hottonia palustris) with pale purplish flowers and pinnatifid leaves.

Heart's-ease \Heart's"-ease`\ (h[aum]rts"[=e]z`), n.

1. Ease of heart; peace or tranquillity of mind or feeling.
   --Shak.

2. (Bot.) A species of violet ( Viola tricolor), a common and long cultivated European herb from which most common garden pansies are derived; -- called also pansy.

   Syn: wild pansy, Johnny-jump-up, heartsease, love-in-idleness, pink of my John, Viola tricolor.

3. (Bot.) A violet of the Pacific coast of North America ( Viola ocellata) having white petals tinged with yellow and deep violet. [WordNet sense 2]

   Syn: two-eyed violet, heartsease, Viola ocellata.

4. (Bot.) A common Old World viola ( Viola arvensis) with creamy often violet-tinged flowers. [WordNet sense 3]

   Syn: field pansy, heartsease, Viola arvensis.

Viola Tricolor is an 1874 novella by the German writer Theodor Storm. It tells the story of a man who remarries after his wife has died, and how the new woman feels insufficient in her role as wife and mother to her step-daughter. The novella was first serialised in the journal Westermanns Monatshefte. An English translation by Bayard Quincy Morgan was published in 1956.

Viola tricolor, Also known as Johnny Jump up (though this name is also applied to similar species such as the yellow pansy), heartsease, heart's ease, heart's delight, tickle-my-fancy, Jack-jump-up-and-kiss-me, come-and-cuddle-me, three faces in a hood, or love-in-idleness, is a common European wild flower, growing as an annual or short-lived perennial. It has been introduced into North America, where it has spread. It is the progenitor of the cultivated pansy, and is therefore sometimes called wild pansy; before the cultivated pansies were developed, "pansy" was an alternative name for the wild form.

V. tricolor is a small plant of creeping and ramping habit, reaching at most 15 cm in height, with flowers about 1.5 cm in diameter. It grows in short grassland on farms and wasteland, chiefly on acid or neutral soils. It is usually found in partial shade. It flowers from April to September (in the northern hemisphere). The flowers can be purple, blue, yellow or white. They are hermaphrodite and self-fertile, pollinated by bees.

As its name implies, heartsease has a long history of use in herbalism. It has been recommended, among other uses, for epilepsy, asthma, skin diseases and eczema. V. tricolor has a history in folk medicine of helping respiratory problems such as bronchitis, asthma, and cold symptoms. It has expectorant properties, and so has been used in the treatment of chest complaints such as bronchitis and whooping cough. It is also a diuretic, leading to its use in treating rheumatism and cystitis.

The flowers have also been used to make yellow, green and blue-green dyes, while the leaves can be used to make a chemical indicator.

Long before cultivated pansies were released into the trade in 1839, V. tricolor was associated with thought in the " language of flowers", often by its alternative name of pansy (from the French "pensée" - thought): hence Ophelia's often quoted line in Shakespeare's Hamlet, "There's pansies, that's for thoughts". What Shakespeare had in mind was V. tricolor, not a modern garden pansy.

Shakespeare makes a more direct reference, probably to V. tricolor in A Midsummer Night's Dream. Oberon sends Puck to gather "a little western flower" that maidens call "love-in-idleness". Oberon's account is that he diverted an arrow from Cupid's bow aimed at "a fair vestal, throned by the west" (supposedly Queen Elizabeth I) to fall upon the plant "before milk-white, now purple with love's wound". The "imperial vot'ress" passes on "fancy-free", destined never to fall in love. The juice of the heartsease now, claims Oberon, "on sleeping eyelids laid, Will make or man or woman madly dote Upon the next live creature that it sees." Equipped with such powers, Oberon and Puck control the fates of various characters in the play to provide Shakespeare's essential dramatic and comic structure for the play.