Viola beckwithii is a spectacularly beautiful violet of the eastern Sierra Nevada and northern Great Basin Steppes. Their bright little faces are seen dancing with the wind in early spring on drying meadows and sagebrush scrub. The fuzzy green/gray leaves are ternate with dissected linear leaflets. Hovering above these cushiony mounds are the pansy faced flowers. The lower petals in shades of fusha-white,with violet veins and yellow bases. The velvety upper petals are a deep maroon/purple.They often are found growing in loosely organized clonal fairy rings 12-18 inches across.
They are well adapted to the dry climate and lithosol soils. In early summer they go dormant retreating under ground until the next spring. Their growing season is form March through the middle of July. The growing point (crown? pip? bud?) is found four to six inches deep the spreading fleshy roots reaching even deeper is search of moisture.
http://www.plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=VIBE2
http://calphotos.berkeley.edu/cgi/img_query?where-genre=Plant&where-taxo...
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