PURPLE LAWNS

     Grape hyacinth and common blue violets together beautifully paint some lawns in southeastern Pennsylvania purple during much of April each year.  Both these species of lovely, flowering plants, nestling in short grass on those human-made habitats, add much beauty to them, free.

     Though blossoming together on many lawns, grape hyacinths and blue violets have little in common.  These hyacinths are originally from Europe, while violets are native to North America.  Hyacinths belong to the lily family, while violets are in the violet family.  Hyacinths grow from planted bulbs, but violets are completely wild, popping up where they will.

     Prevalent in the northeastern United States, grape hyacinths spread out of the flower beds they were planted in.  Each plant has a few grass-like leaves and a ten-inch flower stalk that extends above the leaves.  That stem supports a tight, tapered cluster of small, ball-like, purple blooms that resemble a bunch of tiny grapes.  Hundreds of those flower clusters together on a lawn are an attractive sight to behold.  

     Blue violets stand up to eight inches high, and each plant has a few heart-shaped leaves and five blue to purple petals on each blossom, of which there are a few per plant.  This type of violet originally lived on damp, shaded woods floors in the eastern United States.  But violets adapted to sunny lawns when the trees were cut away.  

     Blue violet leaves and flowers are edible to the adaptable wood chucks and cottontail rabbits that help make sunny lawns more interesting.  Violet blooms on lawns provide beauty to us and food to those forms of wildlife.

     Grape hyacinths and common blue violets beautify many lawns during April in the northeastern United States, though they have little else in common.  But both of these flowering plants boost peoples' morale, interest and enjoyment, right at home.          

    

      

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