Viola ocellata
Western heart's ease, two-eyed violet, Two-Eyed Violet
Family: Violaceae · Type: perennial · Native
Western heart's ease is a California native perennial found in northwestern, north-central coastal, and central western California bioregions in moist or vernally moist areas, thickets, yellow-pine, and redwood forests, often on serpentine at elevations of 75 to 1,280 meters. Flowering from March to July, this plant produces distinctive white flowers with deep red-violet upper petals, yellow bases, and lateral petals featuring a large purple spot over a smaller yellow area. Growing 2 to 37 centimeters tall with ascending to erect stems emerging from a shallow rhizome, it has several stems with fleshy roots. Its leaves are simple and variable, with basal leaves 1 to 6 centimeters long, ovate to nearly kidney-shaped, and featuring crenate edges and a heart-shaped base. The fruit is a small round-ovoid capsule 5 to 8 millimeters long, containing brown-purple seeds.
Habitat: Moist or vernally moist areas, rocky or grassy banks, thickets, yellow-pine, redwood forest, often on serpentine
Bloom period: Mar-Jul
Elevation: 75-1280 m
Bioregions: NW, CaRF, n&s CW
California counties: Mendocino, Humboldt, Shasta, Santa Clara, San Mateo, Trinity, Santa Cruz, Marin, Sonoma, Lake, Siskiyou, Napa, Del Norte, Monterey, Placer, Sutter
Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.