I'm in Massachusetts. Around the second week in April, these small weeds with purple flowers started appearing in my lawn. Anyone have an idea what they are?

Thank you

Wild Violets

Highly invasive.

Delicately beautiful. Lovely fragrance. Invasive and difficult to get rid of. A terror in a lawn.

I love them. And they never need mowing!

The native Common Blue Violet (Viola sororia) Flower can be blue, white, purple, pink, or bicolor.



Wildflowers of U.S.: https://uswildflowers.com/deta...
New England Plants: https://gobotany.nativeplanttr...).
Eastern Mass. vascular plants: http://salicicola.com/photos/g...

My yard is full of them.

They serve as a host plant for the Diana fritillary here, a relatively rare butterfly, so we tend to tolerate them here, specially in shaded woodland areas.

A beautiful wild flower, not a weed.

kniphofia said:A beautiful wild flower, not a weed.

Sometimes trouble can happen when a glorious wild flower in one country becomes another problem entirely in another country.

eg The wild flower Impatiens glandulifera...common name Himalayan balsam in the Himalayas is not a problem.
In UK it is a nightmare...covering fields, hedges along river banks and blanketing out all our native wild flowers...it is then most definitely a WEED!

A weed is known here as a POP, a plant out of place. 😁 I think there are some plants that are universally accepted as weeds; with others, it all depends on the plant, where you live, and your personal opinions of it.

gardenfish said:A weed is known here as a POP, a plant out of place. 😁 I think there are some plants that are universally accepted as weeds; with others, it all depends on the plant, where you live, and your personal opinions of it.

I used to love these. But they have become an invasive mess on my property. They are NOT easy to remove or control.

This plant is likely native where it has been spotted, though I'm not sure what the keys are to sorting violet species. If so, it can't be invasive. A native can't invade its' own territory. The grass in which it is growing is likely not native. Don't be brainwashed to be concerned that your non-native grass lawn "should" not have native violets in it.

I started out with a small patch of these on one side of the house and a couple years later, it has spread to the entire section of grass on that side of the house and across the yard (which is around the corner and across the yard). If that's not invasive, I don't know what is.

I think in the end, to each their own. I like a manicured lawn. Some people like a yard full of anything but grass.

But, my experience is that these do spread.

No doubt I readily admit that I prefer violets over grass, but that's extraneous to the point. As a gardening term, invasive indicates a non-native plant that disrupts a native ecosystem. Naturally, a plant will grow well, possibly too exuberantly for a individual preferences, in its' native range. There is no rule that one must appreciate any native plant, just saying it's just not terminologically correct to call it invasive.

purpleinopp said:No doubt I readily admit that I prefer violets over grass, but that's extraneous to the point. As a gardening term, invasive indicates a non-native plant that disrupts a native ecosystem. Naturally, a plant will grow well, possibly too exuberantly for a individual preferences, in its' native range. There is no rule that one must appreciate any native plant, just saying it's just not terminologically correct to call it invasive.

I see what you mean. I guess I use invasive in a different sense, but I can see how it is mispplaced.

Well, I believe you can call a native plant invasive; it all depends on where it is. Natives aren't invasive in their natural environment; there are mechanisms there that control their growth. They become invasive when deliberately planted in gardens where they receive amounts of moisture and fertilizer they never received in their native setting.
I have had personal experiences with two native plants that became horribly invasive when incorporated into my garden beds.
It's all a matter of perspective.

Ok fine. I'll call it an overly aggressive native that is attempting to take over every inch of my property.

Gardening with kiddies under 5:

-they're so soft and spongy to trample over barefooted
-give them a "job" to keep them busy by picking individual violet flowers
-make jelly from the flowers!

Our neighbor just did this with us and it was tasty! We love them now, but may view them differently if we start to care about keeping a traditional lawn.