General: Perennial herb from a fibrous root, without stolons; stems erect, sparsely to densely hairy, largely underground but the aerial stems 6-30 cm tall.
Leaves: Basal leaves egg-shaped to lanceolate, entire or slightly wavy, sparsely to densely hairy, the blades 2-10 cm long, 1-3.5 cm wide, the stalks 3-15 cm long; stem leaves lacking or few, similar; stipules joined to the stem with the free end entire to toothed, sparsely to densely hairy.
Flowers: Inflorescence of single, axillary flowers; petals 5, yellow, the lower petal 12-20 mm long including the 1- to 2-mm long spur, the lower 3 usually brown-penicilled and sometimes tinged with brown, the lateral pair bearded; sepals 5, lanceolate; style heads bearded.
Fruits: Capsules, smooth to hairy, 6-11 mm long; seeds dark brown.
Notes: The ssp. linguaefolia (Nutt. ex T.& G.) Baker & Clausen ex Peck may occur in the Rocky Mountains of extreme SE BC. This subspecies can be distinguished from ssp. praemorsa by its longer, narrower stem leaves and the wedge-shaped leaf base.
Plantago lanceolata may superficially resemble a flowerless Viola praemorsa ssp. praemorsa but P. lanceolata has villous to glabrous leaves, which are prominently three- to several-nerved, that gradually taper (long-acute) to the stem (petiole) [Douglas et al. 1990; Hitchcock et al. 1964; Ryan and Douglas 1995].
Viola praemorsa ssp.linguaefolia, which may occur in montane areas of extreme southeastern BC, is smaller (to ca. 7 cm) has long, narrow cauline leaves and a cuneate leaf base (Douglas et al. 1991). Viola vallicola, which has entire to glandular-hairy leaf margins, and truncate leaf bases, is confined to dry grasslands of south-central British Columbia (Douglas et al. 1991).
Ecological Framework for Viola praemorsa var. praemorsa
The table below shows the species-specific information calculated from original data (BEC database) provided by the BC Ministry of Forests and Range. (Updated August, 2013)
