Viola adunca subsp. adunca

Western dog violet, early blue violet, Early Blue Violet

Family: Violaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Western dog violet is a California native perennial found in the Coast Ranges and northern California mountains, typically inhabiting vernally moist meadows and damp streambanks in conifer forests at elevations up to 3,570 meters. Flowering from April to August, this violet produces light to deep violet flowers with white bases, the lower petals intricately veined in dark violet and featuring distinctive bearded lateral petals. Growing prostrate to erect with multiple stems 3.5 to 30 centimeters tall, it develops a woody base and emerges from underground rhizomes. Its leaves are simple and variable, ranging from ovate to ovate-triangular, with blades 0.5 to 6.6 centimeters long, featuring entire to crenate margins and cordate or truncate bases. The plant produces short-ovoid fruits 6 to 11 millimeters long, containing dark brown to olive-black seeds.

Habitat: Vernally moist meadows, damp streambanks, meadow edges in conifer forest, generally shade

Bloom period: Apr-Aug

Elevation: < 3570 m

Bioregions: CA-FP (gen mtns to 0 m NCo), Wrn

California counties: Butte, Colusa, Trinity, Alameda, Mariposa, San Bernardino, Plumas, Glenn, Tulare, San Diego, Tuolumne, El Dorado, San Francisco, San Mateo, Lake, Mendocino, Sonoma, Shasta, Alpine, Modoc

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.