Viola eriocarpa Schweinitz. Section: Chamaemelanium. Smooth Yellow Forest Violet. Phen: Chasmogamous flower Mar-May; chasmogamous fruit Apr-Jun; cleistogamous fruit May-Aug. Hab: Mesic forests and floodplain terraces of brownwater rivers. Dist: QC west to MB south to DE, MD, w. NC, c. GA, AL, AR, and OK.

ID notes:In chasmogamous flower, the most likely species to be confused with this are yellow-flowered V. glaberrima and V. pubescens. It differs from both species in commonly producing multiple stems (these commonly declined at base or curved in chasmogamous flower, especially in plants with 2 or more stems) and 1 or more basal leaves per stem; from V. glaberrima in cauline leaf blades broader and subcordate to cordate at base; and from V. pubescens in glabrous to hirtellous foliage and peduncles, leaves commonly 4 or more and inserted along most of the stem length, the first fully expanded leaf (at the second node) with 5-15 marginal teeth per side, and lanceolate to ovate stipules that are often cordate-auriculate on the outer side. In fruit, besides the above distinguishing traits, it can be separated from V. canadensis (and V. rugulosa, not in our region) by the fewer coarser crenate-serrate or incurved-serrate teeth on the leaf blade margins, and shorter mostly or wholly herbaceous stipules. Its entire or irregularly erose stipules set it apart from the caulescent rostrate violets often growing with it (V. labradorica, V. rostrata, and V. striata).

Origin/Endemic status: Native

Synonymy: = G, S, S13, Tat, Ballard, Kartesz, & Nishino (2023); = Viola eriocarpa Schwein. var. leiocarpa Fernald & Wiegand – RAB; = Viola eriocarpon (Nutt.) Schwein. var. leiocarpon Fernald & Wiegand; = Viola pensylvanica Michx. – Va, WV; = Viola pubescens Aiton var. eriocarpa – Il; = Viola pubescens Aiton var. scabriuscula Schwein. ex Torr. – FNA6, K1, NE, Pa, Tn, Ballard () (in prep), Haines (2001), McKinney & Russell (2002); > Viola pensylvanica Michx. var. leiocarpa (Fernald & Wiegand) Fernald – F; > Viola pensylvanica Michx. var. pensylvanica – F; < Viola pubescens Aiton – C, GrPl, GW2, K3, K4, W; ? Viola pubescens Aiton var. eriocarpa – Tx; > Viola pubescens Aiton var. leiocarpon (Fernald & Wiegand) W.R.Seymour

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Wetland Indicator Status:

• Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Plain: FACU (taxonomic split from wetland indicator species)
• Eastern Mountains and Piedmont: FACU (taxonomic split from wetland indicator species)
• Great Plains: FACU (taxonomic split from wetland indicator species)
• Midwest: FACU (taxonomic split from wetland indicator species)
• Northcentral & Northeast: FACU (taxonomic split from wetland indicator species)

Heliophily: 4