Viola rivinianaRchb.

common dog-violet

WFO wfo-0000423605 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Viola riviniana, photographed by Anne Thomson
fig. a Anne Thomson, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-06-08 / obs. 204757093
Viola riviniana, photographed by Maria
fig. b Maria, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 201867566
Viola riviniana, photographed by Eugene Popov
fig. c Eugene Popov, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 201847885
Viola riviniana, photographed by Anastasia_Surkova
fig. d Anastasia_Surkova, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 201674972
Viola riviniana, photographed by Anastasia_Surkova
fig. e Anastasia_Surkova, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 199845433
Viola riviniana, photographed by Thor-Rune Hansen
fig. f Thor-Rune Hansen, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 198603522
Viola riviniana, photographed by Wilma Harper
fig. g Wilma Harper, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 199293373
Viola riviniana, photographed by Михаил Малышев
fig. h Михаил Малышев, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 198117912

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 38 botanical countries

Regions where Viola riviniana is native: Algeria, Canary Is., Morocco, Tunisia, East Aegean Is., Albania, Austria, Baltic States, Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria, Central European Russia, Corse, Czechia-Slovakia, Denmark, East European Russia, Finland, Føroyar, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Northwest European Russia, Norway, NW. Balkan Pen., Poland, Portugal, Romania, Sardegna, Sicilia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland AlgeriaMoroccoTunisiaEast Aegean Is.AlbaniaAustriaBaltic StatesBelarusBelgiumBulgariaCentral European RussiaCorseCzechia-SlovakiaDenmarkEast European RussiaFinlandFranceGermanyGreeceHungaryIcelandIrelandItalyNetherlandsNorthwest European RussiaNorwayNW. Balkan Pen.PolandPortugalRomaniaSiciliaSpainSwedenSwitzerland Canary Is.FøroyarSardegna
Native distribution of Viola riviniana, 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
Albania ALB EUROPE
Austria AUT
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
Hungary HUN
Iceland ICE
Ireland IRE
Italy ITA
Netherlands NET
Northwest European Russia RUW
Norway NOR
NW. Balkan Pen. YUG
Poland POL
Portugal POR
Romania ROM
Sardegna SAR
Sicilia SIC
Spain SPA
Sweden SWE
Switzerland SWI
Algeria ALG AFRICA
Canary Is. CNY
Morocco MOR
Tunisia TUN
East Aegean Is. EAI 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 1,955 in flower of 1,989 examined

Peak flowering in Feb. Each bar is the share of Viola riviniana 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. 1,955 of 1,989 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. One month has fewer than 5 examined observations, so no proportion is drawn for it. 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 broussonetiana Roem. & Schult.
  • Viola guffroyi Rouy
  • Viola puberula Lange
  • Viola riviniana f. minor Murb. ex E.S.Gregory
  • Viola riviniana f. prolifera Valentine
  • Viola riviniana f. sobolifera Valentine
  • Viola riviniana subsp. minor (Murb. ex E.S.Gregory) Valentine
  • Viola riviniana var. leucocentra Pinkw.
  • Viola riviniana var. minor (Murbeck ex Greg.) Valentine
  • Viola silana Merino
  • Viola subsessilifolia Lázaro Ibiza
  • Viola sylvatica Fr. ex C.Hartm.

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.