Fraser Valley native. Woodland, not streamside. Is this sempervirens or orbiculata? I've never seem both to compare. TIA
Google to the rescue! Are those two pictures of the same plant? Or different plants in the same area? Viola sempervirens Viola orbiculata I'd personally say from looking at them both and at your examples, that the first one pictured is V. sempervirens, and the second is more possibly V. orbiculata. Check the links above to see for yourself - V. sempervirens has slightly more lanceolate leaves, while in V. orbiculata the leaves are almost without a distinct terminal point (more like water lily leaves.)
Different plants in the same area. Thanks. There is a lot variability in leaf shape between specimens, with a spectrum from rounded to pointed & slightly elongated (lanceolate). The leaves disappear in the winter. | can make no distinction on the flowers or on leaf texture. I am working on rhizomes & purple markings on the underside of the leaves as criteria. In the meantime...ain't they cute! gb. gb
V. sempervirens is a low evergreen (hence species name) creeping carpet found under conifers, this is one of the two taller non-evergreen deciduous or mixed woodland species. Guides to local flora will tell how to distinguish them. At the Washington Park Arboretum, Seattle there are mats of V. sempervirens in the dusty soil beneath some comparatively closely spaced Thuja plicata and other conifers - where apparently little else can grow.
