Viola purpurea

Goosefoot violet

Family: Violaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Goosefoot violet is a California native perennial found in foothill woodland and lower montane conifer forest habitats. Flowering from March to May, this plant produces deep lemon-yellow flowers with occasional red-purple markings on the upper petals, and distinctive dark brown veining on the lower petals. Growing with prostrate to erect stems clustered from woody underground rhizomes, it reaches 10 to 20 centimeters tall with multiple stems emerging from a single caudex. Its leaves are variable, ranging from lanceolate to round, with blades 8 to 53 millimeters long, often featuring 3 to 4 prominent lobes on each leaf edge. The fruit is an ovoid capsule 4 to 12 millimeters long, containing light to dark brown mottled seeds.

California counties: Fresno, San Bernardino, Modoc, San Luis Obispo, Los Angeles, Tehama, Calaveras, Kern, Santa Barbara, San Diego, Lake, Napa, Mendocino, Orange, El Dorado, Riverside, Inyo, Monterey, Tulare, Ventura, Mariposa, Placer, Mono, Butte, Nevada, Sierra, Shasta, Lassen, Siskiyou, Alpine, Tuolumne, Madera, Yuba, Sonoma, Santa Clara, Trinity, Marin, Contra Costa, Amador

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