Viola selkirkiiPursh ex Goldie

Selkirk's violet

WFO wfo-0000423642 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Viola selkirkii, photographed by Allan Harris
fig. a Allan Harris, CC0 1.0 / 2022-06-04 / obs. 203331802
Viola selkirkii, photographed by Tatiana Strus
fig. b Tatiana Strus, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 201492530
Viola selkirkii, photographed by Tatiana Strus
fig. c Tatiana Strus, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 201492571
Viola selkirkii, photographed by Tatiana Strus
fig. d Tatiana Strus, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 201187490
Viola selkirkii, photographed by Tatiana Strus
fig. e Tatiana Strus, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 201186429
Viola selkirkii, photographed by Эльмира
fig. f Эльмира, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 200194794
Viola selkirkii, photographed by Tatiana Strus
fig. g Tatiana Strus, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 199972960
Viola selkirkii, photographed by ll r Ирина
fig. h ll r Ирина, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 200446418

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 59 botanical countries

Regions where Viola selkirkii is native: Altay, Amur, Buryatiya, China North-Central, Chita, Inner Mongolia, Irkutsk, Japan, Kamchatka, Kazakhstan, Khabarovsk, Korea, Krasnoyarsk, Kuril Is., Magadan, Manchuria, Mongolia, North Caucasus, Primorye, Sakhalin, Tuva, West Siberia, Yakutiya, Central European Russia, East European Russia, Finland, North European Russia, Northwest European Russia, Norway, Sweden, Alaska, Alberta, Aleutian Is., British Columbia, Colorado, Greenland, Idaho, Labrador, Maine, Manitoba, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, New Brunswick, New Hampshire, New York, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Ohio, Ontario, Pennsylvania, Québec, Saskatchewan, South Dakota, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin, Yukon AltayAmurBuryatiyaChina North-CentralChitaInner MongoliaIrkutskJapanKamchatkaKazakhstanKhabarovskKrasnoyarskMagadanManchuriaMongoliaNorth CaucasusPrimoryeSakhalinTuvaWest SiberiaYakutiyaCentral European RussiaEast European RussiaFinlandNorth European RussiaNorthwest European RussiaNorwaySwedenAlaskaAlbertaBritish ColumbiaColoradoGreenlandIdahoLabradorMaineManitobaMassachusettsMichiganMinnesotaMontanaNew BrunswickNew HampshireNew YorkNewfoundlandNova ScotiaOhioOntarioPennsylvaniaQuébecSaskatchewanSouth DakotaVermontWashingtonWisconsinYukon Korea
Native distribution of Viola selkirkii, 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
Alaska ASK NORTHERN AMERICA
Alberta ABT
Aleutian Is. ALU
British Columbia BRC
Colorado COL
Greenland GNL
Idaho IDA
Labrador LAB
Maine MAI
Manitoba MAN
Massachusetts MAS
Michigan MIC
Minnesota MIN
Montana MNT
New Brunswick NBR
New Hampshire NWH
New York NWY
Newfoundland NFL
Nova Scotia NSC
Ohio OHI
Ontario ONT
Pennsylvania PEN
Québec QUE
Saskatchewan SAS
South Dakota SDA
Vermont VER
Washington WAS
Wisconsin WIS
Yukon YUK
Altay ALT ASIA-TEMPERATE
Amur AMU
Buryatiya BRY
China North-Central CHN
Chita CTA
Inner Mongolia CHI
Irkutsk IRK
Japan JAP
Kamchatka KAM
Kazakhstan KAZ
Khabarovsk KHA
Korea KOR
Krasnoyarsk KRA
Kuril Is. KUR
Magadan MAG
Manchuria CHM
Mongolia MON
North Caucasus NCS
Primorye PRM
Sakhalin SAK
Tuva TVA
West Siberia WSB
Yakutiya YAK
Central European Russia RUC EUROPE
East European Russia RUE
Finland FIN
North European Russia RUN
Northwest European Russia RUW
Norway NOR
Sweden SWE

Not drawn on the map: Kuril Is., Aleutian Is.. We hold no public-domain boundary for these regions, so they are 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 181 in flower of 211 examined

Peak flowering in May. Each bar is the share of Viola selkirkii 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. 181 of 211 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. 7 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 1,896 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -25.7 °C -15.8 °C -9.6 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 18.8 °C 22.4 °C 24.9 °C
Annual rainfall 396 mm 673 mm 1,423 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 30 mm 97 mm 266 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 1,896 research-grade observations of Viola selkirkii 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 14 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 borealis Weinm.
  • Viola carnosula W.Becker
  • Viola crassicornis W.Becker & Hultén
  • Viola funghuangensis P.Y.Fu & Y.C.Teng
  • Viola imberbis Ledeb.
  • Viola kamtschatica Ging.
  • Viola salina Turcz.
  • Viola selkirkii var. albiflora Nakai
  • Viola selkirkii var. angustistipulata W.Becker
  • Viola selkirkii var. brevicalcarata W.Becker
  • Viola selkirkii var. subbarbata W.Becker
  • Viola selkirkii var. variegata Nakai
  • Viola ulleungdoensis M.Kim & Jungsim Lee
  • Viola umbrosa (Wahlenb.) 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.