Viola pubescens (Downy Yellow Violet) - photos and description
Looking straight down onto the plant
General: Robust violet with leafy stems, stems
covered in downy hairs, and plants leafy towards the top.
Taxonomic
key to Saskatchewan's Violets.
Flowers: Flowers borne on stalks in the leaf axils. They are yellow, the lower petals with purple-brown lines. Lateral petals bearded. Flowers were measured at 17 mm across, the spur 4 mm long, and the spur petal 15 mm long.
Leaves: Stem leaves alternate, basal leaves with long petioles. Leaves are ovate with cordate bases, 7.5 cm long, 6.5 cm across, blunt-toothed, a few hairs on top, bottom hairy on the veins, margins with small hairs.
Height: Height listed in Budd's Flora to 30 cm, we measured plants to 29 cm tall.
Habitat: Moist woodlands in the boreal forest along the province's eastern border.
Abundance: Very rare in Saskatchewan, rated an S2 (as of 2021) by the Saskatchewan Conservation Data Centre.
Origin: Native.
When and where photographed: Photos taken June 4th, in heavy mixed forest, rich soil, a small flood plain along a stream bank under 5 foot tall ostrich ferns, Porcupine Provincial forest, about 475 km north east of our home in Regina, SK.