Plants perennial herbs, 4-15 cm tall when flowering, to 30 cm tall in fruit. Stems procumbent at base. Leaves stipulate, petiolate, ovate, with crenate margins and obtuse tips; stipules 2, opposite, linear-lanceolate, not foliaceous, mostly brownish, tips green, those of non-basal leaves 0.5-2 c, ;pmg. 0.2-0.4 cm wide, fimbriates, covered with reddish brown glands; basal leaves with petioles 2-5 cm long, and larger blades than those above, leaves above the base with petioles 0.5-3 cm long and blades 0.4-4.5 cm long. 0.3-4.2 cm wide. covered with reddish brown glands. 4-5-veined. Flowers pedicellate; pedicels 4-7 cm long, glabrous; bracteoles 2, opposite to subopposite, linear, glabrous, entire, acute; sepals attenuate, 5-8 mm long, 1.5-2.5 mm wide, lanceolate, glabrous, entire, acute; petals 5, lateralpetals larger than the others, 12-15 mm long, 3-4 mm wide, others 5-10 mm long, 2.5-3 mm wide, violet marked with dark striations and spots, glabrous, oblanceolate to narrowly ovate, bases cuneate, margins entire, tops obtuse; spurs about 5 mm long, straight to slightly curved, obtuse; ovaries 1-1.5 mm long 0.5-1 mm across, broadly ovoid, dark brown, glabrous; styles about 2.5 mm long, papillose distally, beaked, the beak pointing acendinng. Capsules ellipsoid-lanceoloid, 6-19 mm long, glabrous.
Viola reichenbachiana is easily confused with Viola rvivinana but differs in being smaller and having more or less straight, pointed, and not notched spurs that are darker than the petals. There is also nmenclatural confusion, Lamarck having published the name Viola sylvestris twice, once citing a specimen now called Viola reichenbachiana, the other time citing a specimen now known as Viola riviniana So far as is known, only Viola reichenbachiana grows in Pakistan.