Viola pedunculata
Viola trinervata
California golden violet, johnny-jump-up, wild pansy, yellow pansy
3-nerve violet, desert pansy, Rainier or sagebrush or three-nerve violet, Rainier violet, sagebrush violet, three-nerve violet
1–10+, decumbent, ascending, or erect, leafy proximally and distally, glabrous or puberulent, from shallow to deep-seated, enlarged rhizome with fleshy to subligneous roots.
1–4, decumbent, ascending, or erect, ca. 1/2 subterranean, glabrous, from single, vertical, deep-seated caudex.
cauline;
stipules ovate, linear-lanceolate, or oblanceolate, sometimes leaflike, margins entire or glandular-toothed, apex acute to acuminate;
petiole 2.7–7.2 cm, usually finely puberulent, sometimes glabrate;
blade deltate to ovate, 1–5.5 × 1–5.5 cm, base truncate, subcordate, or attenuate, margins crenate to serrate, ciliate, apex acute to obtuse, surfaces subglabrous or sparsely puberulent.
basal and cauline;
basal: 1–7, palmately compound, leaflets 3–5;
stipules adnate to petiole, forming 2 linear-lanceolate wings, unlobed, margins entire, apex of each wing free, acute;
petiole 4.5–15 cm, glabrous;
blade reniform or ovate to ± orbiculate, 2–5 × 2.5–5 cm, coriaceous, base tapered, leaflets cleft or dissected into 2–3 elliptic, lanceolate, or oblanceolate lobes 2–7 mm wide, margins usually entire, eciliate, apex acute, mucronulate, surfaces glabrous (± glaucous), abaxial surface usually with prominent vein parallel to each margin;
cauline similar to basal except: stipules lanceolate;
petiole 1–5.5 cm;
blade 1–3 × 2–4.5 cm.
2.9–20 cm, sparsely to densely puberulent.
1.1–7 cm, glabrous.
sepals lanceolate to ovate, margins ciliate or eciliate, auricles 1–3 mm;
petals golden yellow adaxially, upper 2 reddish brown abaxially, lower 3 dark brown-veined, lateral 2 bearded, lowest 10–20 mm, spur dark reddish brown, gibbous, 2–4 mm;
style head bearded; cleistogamous flowers absent.
sepals lanceolate, margins eciliate, auricles 0–1 mm;
petals: upper 2 often overlapping, dark reddish violet on both surfaces, lower 3 lilac, rarely white, lateral 2 bearded, with yellow patch basally and reddish violet patch distal to yellow patch, lowest 9–15 mm with yellow patch, dark reddish violet-veined, spur yellow, gibbous, 0.6–1.5 mm;
style head bearded; cleistogamous flowers absent.
ellipsoid, 5–11 mm, glabrous.
ovoid, 7–12 mm, glabrous.
dark brown or black, shiny, 2.7 mm.
tan, 3.2–4.5 mm.
= 12.
Viola pedunculata
Viola trinervata
The stems of Viola pedunculata arise from an enlarged, subterranean, spongy or fibrous rhizome. Often, these rhizome structures are deep seated; it is unknown how they get so deeply buried. The anther appendages of V. pedunculata are hairy distally, a characteristic not known to occur in other members of the V. purpurea complex.
Larvae of the federally listed Callippe silverspot butterfly [Speyeria callippe (Boisduval) callippe] feed only on Viola pedunculata.
Plants with leaves reported to be smaller, thinner, deltate, mostly longer than wide, with yellow petals (versus orange for Viola pedunculata var. pedunculata), style 2.1 mm (versus 2.9 mm for var. pedunculata), from the Pinnacles region in San Benito County, California, have been called subsp. tenuifolia.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
In some populations of Viola trinervata the lower three petals are white with a yellow area proximally (V. B. Baird 1942).
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
CA
WildflowerSearch
iNaturalist
USDA Plants Database
OR
WA
Flora NW
PNW Herbaria
