Bird's-foot violet (Viola pedata) COSEWIC assessment and status report: chapter 6
Distribution
Bird’s-foot violet occurs in eastern North America from Ontario and New York south to Georgia and west to Minnesota and Texas (Figure 2).
Adapted from Kavanagh et al., 1990.
Bird’s-foot violet is known only from southwestern Ontario where it occurs within three counties and two regional municipalities (Figure 3). In 1987, three localities were known: Turkey Point Provincial Park, St. Williams Forest Station, and Brantford. Between the time of preparation of the original status report (Kavanagh et al., 1990) and 2001, two historic records that were thought to have been extirpated were relocated.
In 2001, five sites are considered extant. Historical populations are known from Lambton County, Middlesex County, Brant County, Haldimand-Norfolk Regional Municipality, and Niagara Regional Municipality. None of these historical populations could be relocated despite intensive fieldwork in the 1980’s for the original status report as well as for other projects (Kavanagh et al., 1990). The present range (extent of occurrence) of bird’s-foot violet in Ontario is about 40 km2. The area of occupancy within this range is about 1.5 km2. The extant sites are considered to represent fragmented occurrences since the dispersal mechanism of violets is limited to extremely short distances and gene exchange through pollinator activities would also be highly localized.