Viola orbiculata(A.Gray) Geyer ex B.D.Jacks.

Darkwoods VioletRoundleaf Violetdarkwoods violet

WFO wfo-0001144667 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Viola orbiculata, photographed by Josiah Londerée
fig. a Josiah Londerée, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-05-24 / obs. 200383951
Viola orbiculata, photographed by Josiah Londerée
fig. b Josiah Londerée, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 200387622
Viola orbiculata, photographed by Shane Johnson
fig. c Shane Johnson, CC0 1.0 / obs. 198996610
Viola orbiculata, photographed by Mitch Van Dyke
fig. d Mitch Van Dyke, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 199172429
Viola orbiculata, photographed by Mitch Van Dyke
fig. e Mitch Van Dyke, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 199500748
Viola orbiculata, photographed by Dominic Gentilcore
fig. f Dominic Gentilcore, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 143264053
Viola orbiculata, photographed by Trevor Van Loon
fig. g Trevor Van Loon, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 148995208
Viola orbiculata, photographed by Laura J. Costello
fig. h Laura J. Costello, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 185351898

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 7 botanical countries

Regions where Viola orbiculata is native: Alberta, British Columbia, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, Wyoming AlbertaBritish ColumbiaIdahoMontanaOregonWashingtonWyoming
Native distribution of Viola orbiculata, 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.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Alberta ABT NORTHERN AMERICA
British Columbia BRC
Idaho IDA
Montana MNT
Oregon ORE
Washington WAS
Wyoming WYO

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.

Also published as 3 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.

  • Viola sarmentosa var. orbiculata A.Gray
  • Viola sempervirens subsp. orbiculata (A.Gray) M.S.Baker
  • Viola sempervirens var. orbiculata (A.Gray) J.K.Henry

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.