Viola pinetorum

Mountain yellow violet, Mountain Yellow Violet

Family: Violaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Mountain yellow violet is a California native perennial found in alpine and subalpine habitats at elevations of 1,300 to 3,700 meters. Flowering from June to August, this plant produces deep lemon-yellow flowers with distinctive red to purple-brown upper petals and dark brown veining on lower petals. Growing with prostrate to erect stems 4.5 to 22 centimeters tall, it forms clusters from woody underground rhizomes. Its leaves vary from linear to elliptic or oblanceolate, with thin blades 1.3 to 5 centimeters long that are jagged or irregularly serrate, occasionally with wavy edges. The plant produces small ovoid fruits 3.5 to 7 millimeters long, with seeds in medium to dark brown tones.

California counties: Kern, San Bernardino, Mono, Los Angeles, Placer, Inyo, Tuolumne, Ventura, San Diego, El Dorado, Amador, Mariposa, Tulare, Sierra, Nevada, Fresno

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