Viola maximowicziana ("Komiyamasumire")

Japanese name: コミヤマスミレ （小深山菫）
Scientific name: Viola maximowicziana

[Overview]
A perennial 4–8 cm tall, found in dark, damp places in evergreen broad-leaved forests and cedar forests from low hills to mountains.
It has short underground stems.
After flowering, it often sends stolons into the ground and propagates by forming young plants at their tips.
The leaves are elliptic-ovate, 2–4 cm long, with a heart-shaped base, and are thin.
The upper surface of the leaf is green, sometimes tinged with purple to red, and often has white patches along the veins.
The underside of the leaf is tinged with purple.
The leaf margin has low, coarse teeth.
The petiole is 2–5 cm long and, like the upper surface of the leaf, is hairy.
The flowers are borne at the tips of flower stalks 4–10 cm long; they are white, 1–1.5 cm across, and the lip petal is clearly smaller than the other petals and has purple streaks.
The bases of the lateral petals have no hairs.
Behind the flower is a thick, short spur 0.2–0.3 cm long.
The sepals are reflexed and hairy.
The fruit is a capsule that splits into 3 when ripe and scatters the seeds.

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