Labrador Violet

Viola labradorica

Pollinator Value

🐝 Specialist Bee Host: Andrena violae
S17 pollen specialist on Viola
❄️ Winter Food Source: Seeds persist into winter and are consumed by ground-foraging birds including Ruffed Grouse, Wild Turkey, Dark-eyed Junco, Vesper Sparrow, Northern Bobwhite, and Lapland Longspur. Ruffed Grouse showed Viola seeds occurring in 17% of diet samples. Seeds are small (1.5-2 mm) but produced in quantity by explosive capsule dehiscence.
S57 S6

Proximity Score: 0
Native Status: ✅ Outaouais ✅ Ottawa ✅ QC ✅ ON
Closest Direction: Local
CEC Eco-Regions: 5 – Northern Forests, 5.2 – Mixed Wood Shield, 5.2.3 – Algonquin/Southern Laurentians
Rarity Notes: Globally secure (G5) with national ranks of N5 in both Canada and the United States. Not ranked subnationally in Ontario or Quebec but widespread and common throughout both provinces. Not listed under SARA or COSEWIC. Listed as Common in the Brunton Ottawa Flora (2005). Abundant GBIF occurrence data with 1097 Ontario specimens and 971 Quebec specimens confirm broad distribution.
S22 S62 S48
Rarity Ranks: QC SNR – Not Ranked, ON SNR – Not Ranked
Migration: Stable
Ecological Context: A shade-tolerant violet of rich mesic to wet deciduous and mixed forests, commonly found in moist depressions, floodplain forests, cedar swamps, and along forest trails. In the Gatineau region, specimens document occurrence on calcaire-over-humus soils at Prairie du Castor in Hull, in mixed maple-poplar forests at Marais de Touraine, and along Gatineau Park's Skyline Trail. Frequently associates with Acer rubrum, Populus spp., Lindera benzoin, and Packera aurea in moist lowland communities.
S7 S48 S6

Roles: Pollinator Attractor
S73/S29/S72 Evidence: Pollinator Attractor: S73 [MEDIUM]: S68 3 bee associations (threshold=3)]
Notes: Functions as a living mulch and dynamic accumulator, gathering minerals from the soil and storing them in bioavailable form for use as fertilizer or mulch improvement. Fast-spreading rhizomatous ground cover that fills bare ground beneath deciduous trees and shrubs, suppressing weeds once established. Space plants 30 cm apart for effective coverage. Thrives in the understory of food forest and woodland garden designs.
S29

Category: Cardiac
S61 Ojibwa traditional use for heart trouble
Notes: The Ojibwa used an infusion of the whole plant to treat heart trouble. PFAF lists no medicinal uses (0/5 rating), indicating this is strictly an ethnobotanical record rather than a widely recognized medicinal plant. No phytochemical data available in Duke database.
S61 S29

✅ Edible

Foraging Notes: Young leaves and flower buds can be eaten raw or cooked. Leaves have a mild flavour but become tough with age and make an acceptable salad addition. When added to soup, leaves thicken it similarly to okra. A tea can be made from the leaves. All Viola species have more or less edible leaves and flower buds, though yellow-flowered species may cause diarrhoea in quantity.
S29