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Viola rafinesquei; photograph (c) Zachary Dankowicz, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Zachary Dankowicz, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2026-03-15

Viola rafinesquei Greene

American field pansy; Wild pansy; Johnny-jump-up; Lesser wild pansy

Violaceae · Saskatchewan, Ontario +31

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Viola rafinesquei, photograph (c) Turner Brockman, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Viola rafinesquei, photograph (c) Senna Bryce Robeson, some rights reserved (CC BY)Viola rafinesquei, photograph (c) Jacob Malcom, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Viola rafinesquei, photograph (c) botanygirl, some rights reserved (CC BY)Viola rafinesquei, photograph (c) botanygirl, some rights reserved (CC BY)Viola rafinesquei, photograph (c) botanygirl, some rights reserved (CC BY) 72 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
-11.0°C
Record low -27.8 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
31°C
Jul at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,183mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
14–40DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Rain spread: 70% of the median year's rain takes 8 months, so no short rainy season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Viola rafinesquii (syn. Viola bicolor), commonly known as the American field pansy or wild pansy, is an annual plant in the violet family found throughout much of North America. There has been some debate as to whether the plant is native to North America or if it was introduced from the Old World as a variety of Viola kitaibeliana, but it is now generally thought to be native to the North America. It is common in disturbed habitats but is also found in fields and open woods on substrates ranging from sandy soil to clay to limestone. It experiences a period of dormancy in the winter and flowers in the spring. More on Wikipedia ›

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Viola rafinesquei", CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the genus · Viola

The viola ( vee-OH-lə, Italian: [ˈvjɔːla, viˈɔːla]) is a string instrument of the violin family, and is usually bowed when played. The viola is slightly larger than the violin and has a lower sound. Since the 18th century, it has been the middle or alto voice of the violin family, between the violin (which is tuned a perfect fifth higher) and the cello (which is tuned an octave lower). More on Wikipedia ›

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Viola", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads no short rainy season: 70% of the median year's rain (826 mm of 1,173 mm) takes 8 months, March to October. Mean temperature moves 22.7 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: September to April.

Rain

1,173 mm in the median year at the habitat, 826 mm of it March to October. Wettest month May at 118 mm, driest month February at 81 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,005 mm to 1,397 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,183 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,173 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 14 to 40 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 12, the highest 90th-percentile month 44).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is -11.0 °C, the absolute minimum -27.8 °C, 3,322 frost nights in 44 years, 75.5 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 37.7 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low -0.5 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range -4.2 °C to 3.5 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 31.2 °C in July (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: -11.0 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 55 to 59% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light. CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected +4 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Viola rafinesquei through the yearWarmest month July, mean daily high 31 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low -0.5 °C; 1,173 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.-40°-20°0°20°40°frost37.7° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-27.8° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100125150mm rainDLI 14–40RH 55–59%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 1288 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C8 / 4–1311 / 7–1616 / 12–2021 / 18–2425 / 22–2829 / 27–3131 / 29–3430 / 28–3427 / 25–3021 / 19–2515 / 12–1910 / 6–14
Night °C-1 / -4–41 / -3–55 / 2–910 / 7–1315 / 12–1819 / 18–2222 / 20–2421 / 19–2418 / 15–2012 / 9–156 / 4–101 / -2–5
Rain mm85 / 45–12481 / 56–132103 / 80–13198 / 81–121118 / 92–146111 / 97–131113 / 80–13495 / 72–12597 / 80–11591 / 77–11890 / 72–12191 / 61–133
DLI16 / 14–1821 / 20–2328 / 26–2935 / 33–3738 / 37–3940 / 39–4239 / 38–4436 / 34–4030 / 28–3324 / 22–2517 / 15–1914 / 12–16
RH %58 / 56–5957 / 55–5856 / 55–5755 / 54–5757 / 56–6059 / 57–6059 / 55–6159 / 54–6158 / 55–6057 / 55–5857 / 56–5958 / 56–60
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 1288 grid cells holding the 1563 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 1081:1788 (35.925, -90.575). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -27.8 °C, 1st-percentile night -11.0 °C, 99th-percentile day 37.7 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 1288 distinct grid cells holding 1563 of the 1563 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1081:1788 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 36.00_-90.625, lapse-corrected +4 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 87 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeSaskatchewan, Ontario, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Indiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Arizona, Texas, Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, District of Columbia · introduced: Colorado · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker38.671, -77.197 · in the densest population, 998 records (55% of those in range)
Kew's description“annual” · “temperate” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 1828 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 1563 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 388 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 278 km away. 24 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 265 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 1828 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Viola rafinesquei, photograph 1did not loadViola rafinesquei, photograph 2did not loadViola rafinesquei, photograph 3did not loadViola rafinesquei, photograph 4did not loadViola rafinesquei, photograph 5did not loadViola rafinesquei, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Turner Brockman, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA); (c) Senna Bryce Robeson, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Jacob Malcom, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA); (c) botanygirl, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3).

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Elephantopus carolinianus Elephantopus carolinianus Carolina elephantsfoot Photo: CC0, author not statedLespedeza virginica Lespedeza virginica Slender lespedeza Photo: CC0, author not statedPlantago aristata Plantago aristata Bracted plantain Photo: CC0, author not statedDesmodium ciliare Desmodium ciliare Hairy small-leaf ticktrefoil Photo: CC0, author not statedAsclepias amplexicaulis Asclepias amplexicaulis Blunt-leaf milkweed Photo: CC0, author not statedIpomoea coccinea Ipomoea coccinea Red morning-glory Photo: CC BY, 岸本年郎

Other Viola 138 in the reference

Viola acuminata Viola acuminata Long-stem violet Photo: CC0, author not statedViola adunca Viola adunca Blue violet Photo: CC BY, Syd CanningsViola alba Viola alba Parma violet Photo: CC BY, Илья РуденкоViola albida Viola albida Taebaek violet Photo: CC0, author not statedViola alpina Viola alpina Violaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, xulescu_gViola altaica Viola altaica Altaic Violet Photo: CC BY, b166erViola anagae Viola anagae Violaceae Photo: CC BY, Phill RobinsonViola arborescens Viola arborescens Shrubby Violet Photo: CC BY, Teo AlbertViola arvensis Viola arvensis Field pansy Photo: CC0, author not statedViola atropurpurea Viola atropurpurea Violaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Grzegorz GrzejszczakViola bakeri Viola bakeri Baker's violet Photo: CC BY, Gail A BakerViola banksii Viola banksii Australian Native Violet Photo: CC0, author not stated all 139 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Mnemion rafinesquei; Viola bicolor; Viola kitaibeliana var. rafinesquei; Viola rafinesquei f. caerulea; Viola rafinesquei f. minor and 3 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Violaceae
Described by
Greene
Native to
Saskatchewan, Ontario, Illinois +30
Wild records
1828 in range · 388 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-22
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 50 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (32 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 6 at a herbarium, 12 at a zoo; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 36.00_-90.625, lapse-corrected +4 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22found by its label; its IPNI identifier 266911-2 is Kew's for Viola rafinesquei Greene
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-22
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 60 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

Opening your plants…