It has up to three linear leaves and up to seven purple and mauve flowers with yellowish markings from September to November.

There is a single yellow callus 2–4 mm (0.079–0.157 in) along the mid-line of the labellum.

[2][3][4][5][6] The species was first formally described in 1810 by Robert Brown in his Prodromus Florae Novae Hollandiae et Insulae Van Diemen.

[7] The type specimen was collected by Archibald Menzies near Frenchmans Bay, the present site of the city of Albany around late September or early October 1791.

[9] Purple pansy orchid is found between Perth and Albany, where it grows in sand, lateritic loam, clay and granite in moist situations in shrublands, woodland and forest, in the Jarrah Forest, Swan Coastal Plain and Warren bioregions of south-western Western Australia.