Foothills, montane, subalpine. Woodlands. Spring.
Bolam Pass Road, June 8, 2016 and Bear Creek Trail, June 14, 2005.

In early spring this White Violet can be found in abundance in open meadows or in scattered patches in woodlands in the low to high mountains.  The plant grows from an inch to twelve inches tall depending on growing conditions, and whatever its size, it is easy to spot because of its bright white flowers. As the photographs below show, the flowers are actually often streaked and tinged with other colors, even a faint pink, especially on the back side.

Leaves are a lovely, soft green and heart-shaped.

In 1753 Linnaeus named this plant Viola canadensis. A hundred years later Asa Gray named it Viola canadensis variety scopulorum and then Edward Greene renamed it Viola scopulorum.   It is now most commonly called Viola canadensis or Viola canadensis variety scopulorum.  "Scopulorum" is Latin for "rocky places".

Foothills, montane, subalpine. Woodlands. Spring.
Bear Creek Trail, June 14, 2005 and Stoner Mesa Trail, June 18, 2010/

Flowers range from bright white to white tinged with considerable blue/pink.  The back side of the flowers even more often has strong tinges of pink.

Foothills, montane, subalpine. Wetlands. Spring, summer.
Above and left: Taylor Mesa, June 26, 2021.

Macloskey's Violet grows in spreading mats in wetlands but usually goes unnoticed because of its minute size, just 2-10 centimeters tall. As shown in these photographs the plant is at its smallest with flowers less than a centimeter across and leaves from to 3 centimeters across. The habitat is bogs, wet meadows, streamsides, and, as shown here, very soggy wetlands.

Macloskey's Violet spreads by stolons and the resulting mass of leaves makes it a bit easier to find the plant. If you poke your fingers into the mass of leaves, roots, and other debris at ground level, you will see that the plant is acaulescent, i.e., there is no stem for the leaves; they arise from ground level.

Francis LLoyd named this plant in 1895 from collections he made at the base of Mt. Hood in 1894. Although several floras and the Biota of North America Program indicate that V. macloskeyi should be divided into two subspecies (ssp. pallens and ssp. macloskeyi) the Flora of North America states that the latest research, "concluded that the differences have been exaggerated and fall within the range of variation of a single species".

Range map © John Kartesz,
Floristic Synthesis of North America

State Color Key

Species present in state and native
Species present in state and exotic
Species not present in state

County Color Key

Species present and not rare
Species present and rare
Species extirpated (historic)
Species extinct
Species noxious
Species exotic and present
Native species, but adventive in state
Eradicated
Questionable presence

Range map for Viola canadensis variety scopulorum

Range map for Viola macloskeyi

Range map for Viola macloskeyi ssp pallens