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Viola canina × V. persicifolia (V.
× ritschliana W. Becker), a hybrid violet

Account Summary

Native, very rare or locally extinct.

1919; Praeger, R.Ll.; The Green Loughs, near Fardrum.

June.

This hybrid is closer to V. canina (Heath Dog-violet) in flowers and to V. persicifolia (Fen Violet) in habit, and it is sterile and very vigorous. The hybrid is said to be characterised by often having shrivelled brown corollas on both normal open, sexual flowers and closed, cleistogamous ones and it also displays a decurved spur of intermediate length (Stace et al. 2015). The leaves are longer and the stipules are larger than those of the more common parent (V. canina). Being a hybrid between two such rare parents, unsurprisingly it is also very rare and seldom found, there being only a few known sites in B & I.

Fermanagh occurrence

There are only four rather old local records from three sites in Fermanagh. The parent species overlap on calcareous lakeshores and turloughs in the VC and locally these conditions occur around Lough Erne and at Fardrum, near the Ely Lodge estate to the NW of Enniskillen.

Apart from the first record above, the remaining details are: Green Lough turloughs, near Fardrum, refound here on 20 June 1985 by R.S. Weyl; Corrard Peninsula and Coolbeg Td, both latter sites being on the seasonally flooded shores of Upper Lough Erne, where the hybrid was found by Meikle and co-workers, 1946-53 (no specific years listed).

Although there are records of this rare hybrid violet from three Fermanagh tetrads, it has only been recorded once in the last half century and therefore it may be locally extinct. Despite their conservation status as ASSI sites, the turloughs in the Fardrum area are currently very overgrown with tall invasive vegetation of sedges, grasses and herbs. The previously open area of the turlough basin is fast being reduced by scrub colonising from the marginal hedgerows. The re-excavation of these turloughs will be essential if the rare, low-growing violets, the hybrid and its parents, are ever to be seen here again.

Irish occurrence

In addition to the three Fermanagh sites, elsewhere in Ireland V. × ritschliana has in the past been recorded in only five hectads scattered around turloughs and limestone lakes in Connemara and the Burren (H9 & H14) (Webb & Scannell 1983; Stace et al. 2015). The map in Porter & Foley (2017) indicates that the hybrid was recorded in four hectads in Connemara and the Burren post-1987, all other records being previous to this date.

British occurrence

In England, V. × ritschliana has been rarely recorded at a very few sites in Oxfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire (VCs 23, 29 & 31).

European occurrence

On the continent, this hybrid is said to be widespread in C & N Europe as far north as southern Sweden (Porter & Foley 2017).

Threats

The turlough habitats are protected by ASSI status, as is much of the shoreline of Upper Lough Erne. Regular monitoring and active management to open up the vegetation and reduce encroachment by more aggressive species is absolutely essential to maintain biodiversity.