Viola cornuta Seeds | Horned Violet

Viola cornuta seed

LATIN NAME: Viola cornuta

COMMON NAME: Horned Violet, Horned Pansy, Tufted Pansy

Plant Profile

Viola cornuta, commonly known as Horned Violet, is a low, clump-forming, evergreen perennial. Horned violet brings cool, fresh beauty of the Pyrenees to garden, growing as a low, clump-forming, evergreen perennial no more than twenty centimetres tall, with a tidy mound of small, rounded, softly toothed leaves. In wild it lives between a thousand and two thousand three hundred metres in the Pyrenees and the Cantabrian Mountains of northern Spain, where it survives cold, exposed conditions of high mountain meadows. Tough, hardy and endlessly cheerful, it is one of parents of modern garden pansy, and it has become a beloved perennial in gardens around the world. Its open flowers are a reliable stop for bees and other pollinating visitors. Each of these traits is modest on its own; together they make a garden-worthy plant.

Science & Biotechnology

Like other members of the Viola group, Viola cornuta draws steady attention from botanists and plant breeders, who value the genus both as a subject of research and as a source of garden-worthy material. As one of parents of modern garden pansy, it is of great interest in plant breeding, and researchers and breeders have studied its genetics and its use in producing wide range of pansy and viola varieties grown today. For researchers, plants like this one offer practical material for propagation studies and selection work.

Uses & Benefits

Gardeners value Horned Violet for its ornamental character, and the plant also fits naturally into herb, vegetable and cutting gardens. Ecologically, horned violet is a generous flower of the mountains. Its violet-blue flowers feed bees and other pollinators through a long season, and it grows in cool, open meadows of the high Pyrenees, adding colour to mountain landscape. Its economic value lies mainly in ornamental horticulture. After the first season it asks for very little beyond a place that suits it.

Violets and pansies are edible-flower staples and a gentle folk remedy: violet leaf and flower syrups are traditional European comforts for coughs and children’s skin; the heartsease, San Se Jin, also enters Chinese herbals.

Growing from Seed

Raising Horned Violet from seed is straightforward. Growing horned violets from seed is easy and very rewarding. Pot seedlings on as they grow and plant them out in a sunny or partly shaded spot in reasonably good, well-drained soil. Level a tray of loose seed compost, sow evenly, cover to about the seed’s own depth, and keep it moist in full light. Move strong seedlings into individual pots, keep them in good light, and set them out when the weather and their size agree.

Our Take

The medicinal tradition behind this species, outlined above, is a large part of its interest. Horned Violet, Horned Pansy, Tufted Pansy earns its space through character rather than fuss. In a sunny, freely drained position it needs little looking after.

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