Viola palustrisL.

marsh violet

WFO wfo-0000423437 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Viola palustris, photographed by Elias
fig. a Elias, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-06-12 / obs. 205717224
Viola palustris, photographed by Elias
fig. b Elias, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 205235479
Viola palustris, photographed by Stanislav Murashkin
fig. c Stanislav Murashkin, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 204216098
Viola palustris, photographed by David Sandler
fig. d David Sandler, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 200245751
Viola palustris, photographed by David Sandler
fig. e David Sandler, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 200246395
Viola palustris, photographed by David Sandler
fig. f David Sandler, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 199795708
Viola palustris, photographed by Alena Shindyapkina
fig. g Alena Shindyapkina, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 199431812
Viola palustris, photographed by Elias
fig. h Elias, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 199406265

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 56 botanical countries

Regions where Viola palustris is native: Azores, Morocco, West Siberia, Austria, Baltic States, Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria, Central European Russia, Corse, Czechia-Slovakia, Denmark, East European Russia, Finland, Føroyar, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, North European Russia, Northwest European Russia, Norway, NW. Balkan Pen., Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, Alberta, British Columbia, California, Colorado, Greenland, Idaho, Labrador, Maine, Manitoba, Montana, New Hampshire, Newfoundland, Northwest Territories, Nunavut, Ontario, Oregon, Québec, Saskatchewan, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, Wyoming MoroccoWest SiberiaAustriaBaltic StatesBelarusBelgiumBulgariaCentral European RussiaCorseCzechia-SlovakiaDenmarkEast European RussiaFinlandFranceGermanyGreeceIcelandIrelandItalyNetherlandsNorth European RussiaNorthwest European RussiaNorwayNW. Balkan Pen.PolandPortugalRomaniaSpainSwedenSwitzerlandUkraineAlbertaBritish ColumbiaCaliforniaColoradoGreenlandIdahoLabradorMaineManitobaMontanaNew HampshireNewfoundlandNorthwest TerritoriesNunavutOntarioOregonQuébecSaskatchewanSouth DakotaUtahWashingtonWyoming AzoresFøroyar
Native distribution of Viola palustris, 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
Austria AUT EUROPE
Baltic States BLT
Belarus BLR
Belgium BGM
Bulgaria BUL
Central European Russia RUC
Corse COR
Czechia-Slovakia CZE
Denmark DEN
East European Russia RUE
Finland FIN
Føroyar FOR
France FRA
Germany GER
Great Britain GRB
Greece GRC
Iceland ICE
Ireland IRE
Italy ITA
Netherlands NET
North European Russia RUN
Northwest European Russia RUW
Norway NOR
NW. Balkan Pen. YUG
Poland POL
Portugal POR
Romania ROM
Spain SPA
Sweden SWE
Switzerland SWI
Ukraine UKR
Alberta ABT NORTHERN AMERICA
British Columbia BRC
California CAL
Colorado COL
Greenland GNL
Idaho IDA
Labrador LAB
Maine MAI
Manitoba MAN
Montana MNT
New Hampshire NWH
Newfoundland NFL
Northwest Territories NWT
Nunavut NUN
Ontario ONT
Oregon ORE
Québec QUE
Saskatchewan SAS
South Dakota SDA
Utah UTA
Washington WAS
Wyoming WYO
Azores AZO AFRICA
Morocco MOR
West Siberia WSB ASIA-TEMPERATE

Not drawn on the map: Great Britain. 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 491 in flower of 537 examined

Peak flowering in Mar. Each bar is the share of Viola palustris 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. 491 of 537 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. 5 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.

Also published as 12 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 fennica F.Nyl.
  • Viola inodora Gilib.
  • Viola juressi Link ex Wein
  • Viola paludosa [Clairv.]
  • Viola palustris f. palustris
  • Viola palustris subsp. brevipes M.S.Baker
  • Viola palustris subsp. pubifolia Kuta
  • Viola palustris var. brevipes (M.S.Baker) R.J.Davis
  • Viola palustris var. leimonia J.K.Henry
  • Viola palustris var. palustris
  • Viola pubifolia (Kuta) G.H.Loos
  • Viola scanica (Fr.) Fr.

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.