Flora of North America species comparison

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Viola purpurea

Viola purpurea var. mohavensis

goosefoot violet, mountain violet, pine violet, purple-mark yellow violet
Photo is of parent taxon

goosefoot violet, Mojave goosefoot violet
Habit Plants perennial, caulescent, not stoloniferous, 1.5–25 cm. Plants 5–24 cm.
Stems

1–5(–7), decumbent or spreading to erect, leafy proximally and distally, ± glabrous, puberulent, canescent, or tomentose, on caudex from subligneous rhizome.

spreading to erect, usually not buried, usually elongated by end of season, ± glabrous or usually puberulent.
Leaves

basal and cauline;

basal: 1–6;

stipules adnate to petiole, forming 2 linear, membranous wings, wing margins entire or laciniate, each wing with lanceolate to ± deltate projection, margins entire or laciniate, apex acute to long-acuminate;

petiole 1.8–14.5 cm, puberulent to tomentose;

blade purplish, purple-tinted, or gray-green abaxially, gray, green, or gray-green adaxially, sometimes shiny adaxially, ovate, orbiculate, oblong, deltate, or lanceolate, 0.8–5.3 × 0.4–4.1 cm, often fleshy, base cordate, subcordate, truncate, or attenuate, oblique or not, margins usually ± crenate, serrate, dentate, or coarsely or irregularly repand-dentate, sometimes entire, usually ciliate, apex acute to obtuse or rounded, surfaces glabrous, puberulent, or tomentose;

cauline similar to basal except: stipules linear, lanceolate, oblanceolate, or ± oblong to ovate, margins entire, lacerate, or laciniate, usually ciliate, apex sometimes divided into 2–3 filiform processes or obtuse;

petiole 0.3–19.7 cm, glabrous or puberulent;

blade ovate, oblong, elliptic, deltate, or lanceolate, 0.9–5.2 × 0.2–2.9 cm, length 0.8–7.1 times width, margins crenate, serrate, dentate, repand-denticulate, undulate-denticulate, sinuate, undulate, or entire, abaxial surface puberulent, canescent, or tomentose, adaxial surface glabrous, sparsely pubescent, puberulent, canescent, or tomentose.

basal: 1–5;

petiole 4.5–14.5 cm, puberulent;

blade gray-green to purple-tinted abaxially, green or gray-green adaxially, ovate, ± orbiculate, or ± deltate, 1–4 × 1–3.5 cm, base usually attenuate, margins dentate-serrate with 4 or 5(6) pointed or rounded teeth per side, apex obtuse, abaxial surface glabrous or puberulent, adaxial surface glabrous or finely puberulent, not shiny;

cauline: petiole 0.8–11 cm, glabrous or puberulent;

blade ovate, elliptic, or lanceolate, 1.5–3.7 × 0.5–2.5 cm, length 1–3 times width, base attenuate, margins with 3 or 4(5) pointed or rounded teeth per side, apex acute, abaxial surface puberulent, adaxial surface usually glabrous, sometimes puberulent.
Peduncles

1.7–14 cm, glabrous or usually puberulent.
Capsules

ovoid to ± spherical, 4–7 mm, puberulent.

5–7 mm.
Seeds

light to dark brown or mottled gray and brown, 2–3.1 mm.

light brown, 2.7–3.1 mm.
Lowest

petal 10–14 mm.
2n

= 12.

Viola purpurea

Viola purpurea var. mohavensis
Phenology Flowering Mar–Jul.
Habitat Desert scrub, sagebrush, dry areas in yellow pine forests
Elevation 900–2600 m (3000–8500 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
AZ; CA; CO; ID; MT; NV; OR; UT; WA; WY; BC; nw Mexico
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
AZ; CA; NV
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Varieties 7 (7 in the flora).

Varieties of Viola purpurea are variable and intergrade. All are found in California; six occur in other western states, one in Mexico, and one in British Columbia. Mature plants are needed for determination.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Variety mohavensis is variable; cauline leaf margins in some populations are similar to basal blades. The basal leaves of plants from Long Valley, Mono County, California, are more or less truncate or subcordate. In 1953, M. S. Baker changed his previous position and decided to treat Viola aurea as a separate species rather than as a subspecies of V. purpurea, and to treat mohavensis as a subspecies of V. aurea. G. L. Stebbins et al. (1963) stated that additional study may reveal that aurea and mohavensis might be better treated as species separate from each other and from V. purpurea.

M. S. Baker (1953) noted that a form of var. mohavensis found in Mono and Inyo counties, California, is much greener in aspect and lacks microscopic pubescence. G. L. Stebbins et al. (1963) wrote that these taxa appeared to be a variable assemblage perhaps of forms transitional between V. aurea and subspecies of V. purpurea other than subsp. purpurea.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Key
1. Basal and cauline leaf blade surfaces tomentose
var. aurea
1. Basal and cauline leaf blade surfaces ± glabrous, canescent, or puberulent
→ 2
2. Stems mostly buried, not much elongated by end of season; plants 1.5–9(–12) cm
→ 3
2. Stems usually not buried, usually elongated by end of season; plants 3–25 cm
→ 4
3. Cauline leaf margins usually entire, sometimes sinuate; basal leaf margins ± crenate to irregularly repand-dentate or entire.
var. integrifolia
3. Cauline leaf margins usually coarsely crenate or dentate, sometimes ± serrate or ± entire; basal leaf margins coarse-serrate or irregularly dentate or crenate with 2–4 rounded teeth per side
var. venosa
4. Basal leaf base cordate or truncate
var. dimorpha
4. Basal leaf base usually attenuate, sometimes subcordate or truncate
→ 5
5. Cauline leaf blade length 3.2–7.1 times width, margins usually undulate-denticulate, sometimes entire
var. mesophyta
5. Cauline leaf blade length 1–3 times width, margins with 3–4(–5) pointed or rounded teeth per side or crenate-serrate
→ 6
6. Basal leaf blade margins irregularly crenate, without pointed or rounded teeth; adaxial surface often shiny.
var. purpurea
6. Basal leaf blade margins dentate-serrate with 4–5(–6) pointed or rounded teeth per side; adaxial surface not shiny.
var. mohavensis
Source FNA vol. 6, p. 150. FNA vol. 6, p. 152.
Parent taxa Violaceae > Viola Violaceae > Viola > Viola purpurea
Sibling taxa
V. adunca, V. affinis, V. arvensis, V. bakeri, V. beckwithii, V. bicolor, V. biflora, V. blanda, V. brittoniana, V. canadensis, V. canina, V. charlestonensis, V. clauseniana, V. cucullata, V. cuneata, V. douglasii, V. egglestonii, V. epipsila, V. flettii, V. frank-smithii, V. glabella, V. guadalupensis, V. hallii, V. hastata, V. hirsutula, V. howellii, V. japonica, V. labradorica, V. lanceolata, V. langsdorffii, V. lithion, V. lobata, V. macloskeyi, V. missouriensis, V. nephrophylla, V. novae-angliae, V. nuttallii, V. ocellata, V. odorata, V. orbiculata, V. palmata, V. palustris, V. pedata, V. pedatifida, V. pedunculata, V. pinetorum, V. praemorsa, V. primulifolia, V. prionantha, V. pubescens, V. quercetorum, V. renifolia, V. riviniana, V. rostrata, V. rotundifolia, V. sagittata, V. selkirkii, V. sempervirens, V. septemloba, V. sheltonii, V. sororia, V. striata, V. subsinuata, V. tomentosa, V. tricolor, V. trinervata, V. tripartita, V. umbraticola, V. utahensis, V. vallicola, V. villosa, V. walteri
V. purpurea var. aurea, V. purpurea var. dimorpha, V. purpurea var. integrifolia, V. purpurea var. mesophyta, V. purpurea var. purpurea, V. purpurea var. venosa
Subordinate taxa
V. purpurea var. aurea, V. purpurea var. dimorpha, V. purpurea var. integrifolia, V. purpurea var. mesophyta, V. purpurea var. mohavensis, V. purpurea var. purpurea, V. purpurea var. venosa
Synonyms V. aurea subsp. mohavensis, V. purpurea subsp. mohavensis
Name authority Kellogg: Pacific (San Francisco), 2 Feb. 1855: unnumb. (1855) (M. S. Baker & J. C. Clausen) J. T. Howell: Mentzelia 1: 8. (1976)
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



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