Viola bifloraL.

arctic yellow violet

WFO wfo-0000426651 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Viola biflora, photographed by Elias
fig. a Elias, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-06-11 / obs. 205233489
Viola biflora, photographed by Marco Mussita
fig. b Marco Mussita, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 205373010
Viola biflora, photographed by Katrin Simon
fig. c Katrin Simon, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 204426378
Viola biflora, photographed by Ljaž
fig. d Ljaž, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 203210424
Viola biflora, photographed by Tobias Schönberg
fig. e Tobias Schönberg, CC0 1.0 / obs. 203318020
Viola biflora, photographed by Elias
fig. f Elias, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 203267598
Viola biflora, photographed by Jason Grant
fig. g Jason Grant, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 202770940
Viola biflora, photographed by Norrland
fig. h Norrland, CC0 1.0 / obs. 201825598

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 60 botanical countries

Regions where Viola biflora is native: Afghanistan, Altay, Amur, Buryatiya, China North-Central, China South-Central, China Southeast, Chita, Inner Mongolia, Irkutsk, Japan, Kamchatka, Kazakhstan, Khabarovsk, Kirgizstan, Korea, Krasnoyarsk, Kuril Is., Magadan, Manchuria, Mongolia, Primorye, Qinghai, Sakhalin, Taiwan, Tibet, Tuva, West Siberia, Xinjiang, Yakutiya, Assam, East Himalaya, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Sumatera, West Himalaya, Austria, Bulgaria, Corse, Czechia-Slovakia, East European Russia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, North European Russia, Norway, NW. Balkan Pen., Poland, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, Alaska, British Columbia, Colorado, Yukon AfghanistanAltayAmurBuryatiyaChina North-CentralChina South-CentralChina SoutheastChitaInner MongoliaIrkutskJapanKamchatkaKazakhstanKhabarovskKirgizstanKrasnoyarskMagadanManchuriaMongoliaPrimoryeQinghaiSakhalinTaiwanTibetTuvaWest SiberiaXinjiangYakutiyaAssamEast HimalayaMyanmarNepalPakistanSumateraWest HimalayaAustriaBulgariaCorseCzechia-SlovakiaEast European RussiaFinlandFranceGermanyHungaryItalyNorth European RussiaNorwayNW. Balkan Pen.PolandRomaniaSpainSwedenSwitzerlandUkraineAlaskaBritish ColumbiaColoradoYukon Korea
Native distribution of Viola biflora, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows. Regions too small to draw at this scale are marked with a dot.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Afghanistan AFG ASIA-TEMPERATE
Altay ALT
Amur AMU
Buryatiya BRY
China North-Central CHN
China South-Central CHC
China Southeast CHS
Chita CTA
Inner Mongolia CHI
Irkutsk IRK
Japan JAP
Kamchatka KAM
Kazakhstan KAZ
Khabarovsk KHA
Kirgizstan KGZ
Korea KOR
Krasnoyarsk KRA
Kuril Is. KUR
Magadan MAG
Manchuria CHM
Mongolia MON
Primorye PRM
Qinghai CHQ
Sakhalin SAK
Taiwan TAI
Tibet CHT
Tuva TVA
West Siberia WSB
Xinjiang CHX
Yakutiya YAK
Austria AUT EUROPE
Bulgaria BUL
Corse COR
Czechia-Slovakia CZE
East European Russia RUE
Finland FIN
France FRA
Germany GER
Hungary HUN
Italy ITA
North European Russia RUN
Norway NOR
NW. Balkan Pen. YUG
Poland POL
Romania ROM
Spain SPA
Sweden SWE
Switzerland SWI
Ukraine UKR
Assam ASS ASIA-TROPICAL
East Himalaya EHM
Myanmar MYA
Nepal NEP
Pakistan PAK
Sumatera SUM
West Himalaya WHM
Alaska ASK NORTHERN AMERICA
British Columbia BRC
Colorado COL
Yukon YUK

Not drawn on the map: Kuril Is.. We hold no public-domain boundary for this region, so it is listed rather than guessed at.

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Flowering 1,079 in flower of 1,132 examined

Peak flowering in Apr. Each bar is the share of Viola biflora observations in which someone actually recorded the reproductive state and found the plant in flower, not the raw number of flowering records. That distinction matters: people observe plants far more in spring than in winter, so a bare count of flowering records partly measures when people go outside. Dividing by the number examined removes that. 1,079 of 1,132 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. 6 months have fewer than 5 examined observations, so no proportion is drawn for them. This is still a global aggregate and not a forecast for your garden: the same species flowers on different dates in different hemispheres. Where a species has fewer than 30 flowering records we do not draw this chart at all. Computed from 10.15468/dl.cgje2x.

Where it actually grows measured, from 1,997 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -25.1 °C -12.7 °C -5.7 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 12.1 °C 16.1 °C 21.6 °C
Annual rainfall 654 mm 1,482 mm 2,665 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 36 mm 226 mm 473 mm

It is found where winters are arctic. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 1,997 research-grade observations of Viola biflora that carry a coordinate, and this is the range those places actually span. The 5th and 95th percentiles are used rather than the minimum and maximum, because a single cultivated specimen in a heated conservatory should not widen a tropical plant's range to the Arctic.

This is not a hardiness zone. A USDA zone is the average annual extreme minimum temperature. The figure above is the mean daily minimum of the coldest month, which is a different quantity and is typically far warmer. Reading one as the other would place a plant several zones too warm, so we do not publish a hardiness zone, because we do not have one. Climate from CHELSA V2.1 (Karger et al. 2017); occurrences from 10.15468/dl.cgje2x.

Also published as 28 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Dischidium biflorum (L.) Opiz
  • Viola avatschensis W.Becker & Hultén
  • Viola biflora subsp. avatschensis (W.Beck. & Hult.) Tzvelev
  • Viola biflora subsp. biflora
  • Viola biflora var. acuminata Maxim.
  • Viola biflora var. akaishiensis Hid.Takah. & Ohba
  • Viola biflora var. biflora
  • Viola biflora var. carlottae (Calder & Roy L.Taylor) B.Boivin
  • Viola biflora var. hirsuta W.Becker
  • Viola biflora var. nudicaulis W.Becker
  • Viola biflora var. valdepilosa Hand.-Mazz.
  • Viola chingiana W.Becker
  • Viola crassa Makino
  • Viola crassa subsp. alpicola Hid.Takah.
  • Viola crassa subsp. borealis Hid.Takah.
  • Viola crassa subsp. yatsugatakeana Hid.Takah.
  • Viola crassa var. alpicola (Hid.Takah.) T.Shimizu
  • Viola crassa var. borealis (Hid.Takah.) T.Shimizu
  • Viola crassa var. tayemonii (Hayata) S.S.Ying
  • Viola crassa var. yatsugatakeana (Hid.Takah.) T.Shimizu
  • Viola kanoi Sasaki
  • Viola manaslensis Maekawa
  • Viola nudicaulis (W.Beck.) S.Y.Chen
  • Viola reniformis Wall.

and 4 more.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.