It is on a spring walk through Goldstream Park that we spot wild yellow violets.

So tiny!
But so precious!
(It’s very rare for me to catch sight of this native wildflower.)

It was SM who spotted them.  Once we saw the first one, we noticed a few more further along the trail.

These are Viola glabella, AKA  yellow wood violet, stream violet, pioneer violet,  or smooth yellow violet.

They enjoy the moist woodlands of the Pacific Northwest & are even found along Asia’s Pacific Northeast.
🙂
I wonder how many more names they have there?

Last year I finally saw the endangered yellow montane violet (Viola praemorsa) at Playfair Park.  It has fuzzy leaves & prefers Garry oak meadows. This trailside violet is definitely not it.

There’s another similar yellow violet,  Viola pubescens, but it’s native to the eastern side of our continent.   It’s definitely not this one either.

I first encountered yellow wood violets in a municipal campground in Washington State.  Perhaps that patch was more mature, or further into it’s growing season because it was a larger clump.

Maybe it was bigger because it had a bit more sunshine?  (Our  walk at Goldstream Park was through lots of tall trees.)

I can easily imagine wanting some yellow wood violets in our own (dry) woodland garden if we weren’t tending a meadow of the western dog violet (Viola adunca).

Another friend  (PS) has yellow wood violets in her irrigated woodland garden.  They’re doing well &  are slowly spreading between the other perennials.  The challenge is sharing ground with the more persistent & dry tolerant western dog violet.  They look so similar that it’s only when a dog violet blooms (purple) that PS digs it out, giving the yellow violets priority.  It’s a longterm strategy.  I have my fingers crossed for her.

On second thought, maybe I could find an isolated, shady spot in our yard where there are no dog violets & enough moisture…

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