Joann Merritt's Essays
Violets & Variegated Fritillaries
October, 2000
“What is charm? It is what the violet has and the camellia has not” wrote American novelist Francis Marion Crawford. That statement proved true for me when I first observed and was charmed by the native Green Violets (Hybanthus verticillatus) that I found growing in a pasture near our home. The plant was so insignificant-looking that a person might simply give it a cursory glance dismissing it as merely another weed - at least that’s what this person did! In my defense, though, I can testify that the Green Violet definitely does not fit our macho West Texas image.
It averages only 6” tall, has narrow pale green leaves and tiny drooping flower heads which open just enough for a single white petal to be visible. That one protruding petal makes the pinkish-tinged bud look as though it’s sticking out its tongue thereby conveying the message: “Leave me alone, y’all know violets are shy!” - and that characteristic likewise doesn’t fit our West Texas image.
Butterflies as well as plants charm me with their delightful presence and were the primary reason I discovered the violets. I observed Variegated Fritillaries in that same pasture and had vainly searched numerous plantains and flaxes which serve as host plants for fritillaries. I was hoping to find eggs, caterpillars or chrysalides of these common butterflies to verify that they breed in Midland. At that time I was aware that fritillaries also lay their eggs on violets but was totally unaware that native violets grow here.
Just speaking the Green Violets scientific name, Hybanthus verticillatus, makes a botanists tongue tingle and it evidently affects the Variegated Fritillary caterpillar the same way because when I finally found one it was munching on Green Violet leaves. That observation gave this butterfly species confirmed breeding status for Midland County as well as adding a native plant species to my personal county list.
Folks, that was a Yippee & Yahoo happening for this West Texas naturalist and butterfly buff.