Viola lobata

Pine violet, yellow wood violet, Yellow Wood Violet

Family: Violaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Pine violet is a California native perennial found in montane and subalpine habitats at elevations from 1,000 to 2,500 meters. Flowering from March to June, this plant produces deep lemon-yellow flowers with distinctive dark red-brown markings on the upper petals and bearded lateral petals. Growing 5 to 46 centimeters tall with erect stems emerging from thick horizontal or vertical rhizomes, often with purple-tinged stems. Its leaves are notably variable, ranging from deltate to reniform, with blades 3.5 to 8.5 centimeters long, featuring a cordate base and edges that can be entire or irregularly serrate. The fruit is an elliptic-ovate capsule 6 to 16 millimeters long, containing shiny pale brown seeds with distinctive brown blotches.

California counties: Del Norte, Trinity, Plumas, Yuba, Siskiyou, Placer, Fresno, Mariposa, Lake, Napa, Tuolumne, San Diego, Tulare, El Dorado, Butte, Nevada, Tehama, Sonoma, Madera, Calaveras, Amador, Sierra, Monterey, Mendocino, Humboldt, Shasta, Merced, San Benito, Marin, Lassen, Sacramento

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