Viola canadensis var. rugulosa -> Viola rugulosa

General
,
1

I’m researching plants for a project and I noticed that the canada violet might have undergone taxonomic change.

I’m not a curator nor do I know exactly how to verify if a taxonomic change is “official” or not. I figured I’d make a post here and hopefully people more knowledgeable could make that change if viable.

From what I’ve seen, the western Canada violet is no longer Viola canadensis var. rugulosa, and is now Viola rugulosa.

Link to the site here:

https://www.minnesotawildflowers.info/flower/western-canada-white-violet

It says the taxonomic change is being reviewed by Dr. Harvey Ballard, who is the number one violet person, but thats about all I can find. It’s also aparently subject to change so.

2

This taxon has been described as a species by Greene in 1902 under the name V. rugulosa.

In 1961 it was considered a variety of V. canadensis by C.L.Hitchc..

Obviously Powo doesn’t follow C.L.Hitchc. and lists this taxon as a proper species under the original name.

https://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:266939-2

The discussion on iNat from 2023, leading to the decision not to follow Powo in this case for now, can be found here:

https://www.inaturalist.org/flags/622972