A small team of industrious volunteers counted 8,270 Viola adunca in the Point Reyes National Seashore last week—and they’re just getting started.
The plant, commonly known as the western dog violet, is a small, delicate wildflower and the sole home plant of the Myrtle’s silverspot, an endangered butterfly whose last surviving territory lies in patches of coastal Marin and southern Sonoma Counties.
In all stages of its brief life—from larva to caterpillar to chrysalis…