STATE FLOWER
Wisconsin's State Flower: Wood Violet
Wisconsin schoolchildren picked the wood violet in a two-round vote back in 1908 and 1909 — but it took another 40 years for the legislature to catch up and make it official.
A Popular Vote, Decades Overdue
The wood violet (Viola sororia) won a statewide schoolchildren's referendum in 1909, beating out the wild rose, white water lily, and trailing arbutus. Despite that decisive win, the designation was never formally written into law — an oversight that went unnoticed until 1948, when the state's Centennial Commission caught the gap and finally pushed the bill through in 1949.
QUICK FACT
The wood violet also serves as the state flower of Illinois, New Jersey, and Rhode Island.
