April 2018: White violet [Viola alba ssp. alba] (Weisses Veilchen): To my surprise the first violets in bloom I saw this spring were white violets! I found them on a south-facing edge of the forest. After searching thoroughly I also found the first few common violets, but they seem to be later than the white violets this year. But most of the white flowers were damaged somehow. I suppose they were just about to bloom when the temperature dropped to almost -10°C just after the spring equinox. Their geographic range is rather south and east of us: it streches from North Africa to Iran including the whole Mediterranean area. They also smell and were used to extract the wonderful perfume of violets.
