Canary Violet Seeds (Viola praemorsa)

A charming canary-yellow wildflower with exploding seed capsules.

Occurring across much of Western North America, the canary violet grows up to a diminutive size of about 6-inches in height, bearing flowers in mid-spring. This is typically a full sun or dappled shade plant, and one with a broad range of soil adaptability – finding home in damp grassy meadows as well as in dry rocky outcroppings, -- in both cases benefiting from sites that are not overwhelmed by taller invasive grasses. The exploding seeds capsules disperse the plant broadly across optimal locations by scattering seed in many directions. This is a plant with excellent potential in wild lawns, rock gardens, and expansive meadows of variable topography where it can find and multiple in preferred niche habitats.

The canary violet is a likely host plant for various elusive butterflies, especially many species of western Fritillaries, such as the Pacific fritillary (Boloria epithore), the variegated fritillary (Euptoieta claudia), the Egleis fritillary (Speyeria egleis), the Zerene Fritillary (Speyeria zerene), and several others.

Approximately 80 to 100 seeds (0.5 grams)