Viola sororia, known commonly as the common blue violet, is a short-stemmed herbaceous perennial plant that is native to eastern North America. It is known by a number of common names, including common meadow violet, purple violet, woolly blue violet, hooded violet, and wood violet. Its cultivar 'Albiflora' has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit. This perennial plant species is distributed in the eastern half of the United States, Canada and a part of Eastern Mexico. Their native habitats are rich, moist woods, and swamps located in the eastern half of the United States and Canada. Self-seeding freely, in lawns and gardens it can be considered a weed by some. Cleistogamous seed heads may also appear on short stems in late summer and early autumn. (Source: Wikipedia.org, CC BY-SA)