Viola praemorsa

Astoria violet

Family: Violaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Astoria violet is a California native perennial herb found in coastal and near-coastal regions in moist meadows and forest margins. Flowering from March to May, this plant produces deep lemon-yellow flowers with maroon or brown upper petals and brown-purple veined lower petals, featuring distinctive lateral petals with cylindric beard hairs. Growing with prostrate to erect stems 10 to 30 centimeters tall, it emerges from woody rhizomes in clustered groups. Its basal leaves are elliptic or ovate, 2 to 8 centimeters long, with edges that range from entire to irregularly crenate or serrate, often with an oblique or truncate base. The fruit is an elliptic to oblong capsule 6 to 12 millimeters long, containing small brown seeds partially covered by an outgrowth.

California counties: Humboldt, Trinity, Modoc, Siskiyou, Mariposa, Sierra, Plumas, Nevada, Lassen, Alpine, Butte, Madera

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