[2] It is derived by hybridization from several species in the section Melanium ("the pansies")[3] of the genus Viola, particularly V. tricolor, a wildflower of Europe and western Asia known as heartsease.

refers to a horticultural variety of wild pansy (V. tricolor without interspecific hybridization) that had been illustrated in Flora Danica in 1777[4][5] before the existence of Viola × wittrockiana.

[8] The plant may grow to 23 cm (9 in) in height, and prefers sun to varying degrees and well-draining soils.

[3][9][10] Another possible distinction is made by the American Violet Society – the International Cultivar Registration Authority for the genus Viola.

On this classification, modern "pansies" differ from the other three subgroups by possessing a well-defined "blotch" or "eye" in the middle of the flower.

[11] Modern horticulturalists tend to use the term "pansy" for those multi-coloured large-flowered hybrids that are grown for bedding purposes every year, while "viola" is usually reserved for smaller, more delicate annuals and perennials.

The woman, who refused marriage and took the veil, was considered a pattern of humility, hence the name "humble violet".

In 1812, she introduced her pansies to the horticultural world, and, in 1813, Mr. Lee of Vineyard Nursery,[18] a well-known florist and nurseryman, discovered her collection and further cultivated the flower.

They are not very heat-tolerant; warm temperatures inhibit blooming and hot muggy air causes rot and death.

In colder zones, pansies may not survive without snow cover or protection (mulch) from extreme cold or periods of freezing and thawing.

Symptoms include dark spots on leaf margins followed by a white web covering the leaves.

Stem rot, also known as pansy sickness, is a soil-borne fungus and a possible hazard with unsterilized animal manure.

Pansies with the virus have fine yellow veining on young leaves, stunted growth and anomalous flowers.

[16] Smart proposes "Were it not for thee, oh sun,/Those pansies, that reclining from the bank/View through the immaculate, pellucid stream,/Their portraiture in the inverted Heaven,/Might as well change their triple boast, the white,/The purple, and the gold".

[16] On account of its popularity in both society and its recurring appearances in Romantic poetry, a variety of new nicknames for the flower began to circulate.

Because its name means "thought", the pansy was chosen as a symbol of Freethought[28] and has been used in the literature of the American Secular Union.

Humanists use it too, as the pansy's current appearance was developed from the heartsease by two centuries of intentional crossbreeding of wild plant hybrids.

The specific colors of the flower – purple, yellow, and white – are meant to symbolize memories, loving thoughts and souvenirs, respectively.

[13] The Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) uses the pansy symbol extensively in its lapel pins and literature.

The flower has long been associated with human manner, as one man cleverly stated: “Nature sports as much with the colours of this little flower as she does with the features of the human countenance.”[26] In William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, the "juice of the heartsease" is a love potion and "on sleeping eyelids laid, will make a man or woman madly dote upon the next live creature that it sees."

In the language of flowers, a honeyflower and a pansy left by a lover for his beloved means, "I am thinking of our forbidden love".

In 1858, the writer James Shirley Hibberd wrote that the French custom of giving a bride a bouquet of pansies (thoughts) and marigolds (cares) symbolized the woes of domestic life rather than marital bliss.

Unfortunately, the people’s cows were starving due to the ruined fields, so the pansy prayed to give up her perfume.

In this game, two players would intertwine the hooks where the pansy blossoms meet the stems, then attempt to pull the two flowers apart like wishbones.