Blue violet, Illinois' state flower

While running in Morton Grove's Linne Woods Sunday afternoon, I came across Illinois' state flower, the blue violet. I don't know how it was chosen, but the flower occurs in every one of Illinois' 102 counties.

Hungry? The young leaves and flowers of this violet are edible.

Related posts:

Red trillium
On this day: Linnaeus publishes major work; Morton Grove trillium

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