Unmistakable bright yellow flower, five oval petals with brownish/ red veins held on a single stem which can be up to 15 cm ( 5.9 inches) high. The flower has no scent at all. Flowers from November to January. Most likely to be seen on dry open Diddle-dee heathland close to coasts and dry sandy areas.

Viola maculata is given protected status in the Falklands, not because it is rare or endangered but because it is almost certainly the larval food plant of the Queen of the Falklands Fritillary (Yramea cytheris), a rare butterfly and a nationally protected wild animal.

Found on the Falklands, and Fuegia and Patagonia on neighbouring South America.

Sources include:,Falkland Islands State of the Environment Report 2008 Otley H, Munro G, Clausen A, Ingham B. Falklands Conservation, A Field Guide to the Wildlife of The Falkland Islands and South Georgia - Ian J Strange, Plants of the Falkland Islands - Ali Liddle 2007, Flowering Plants of the Falkland Islands- Robin W. Woods.

Photographic credits: Robert Maddocks

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