Heartsease

Description

Heartsease has many names including Johnny Jump Up (though this name is also applied to similar species such as the yellow pansy), heart’s ease, heart’s delight, tickle-my-fancy, Jack-jump-up-and-kiss-me, come-and-cuddle-me, three faces in a hood, or love-in-idleness. As some of its names imply, this plant has a long history of use in herbalism and folk medicine, as a medicinal plant both for epilepsy, skin diseases and eczema, and for respiratory problems such as bronchitis, asthma, and cold symptoms. The Viola tricolor flowers have also been used to make yellow, green and blue-green dyes, while the leaves can be used to indicate acidity. Heartsease enjoys full sun or light shade and moist neutral soils.