[1][2][3] This species is a rhizomatous perennial herb with hairy, heart-shaped leaves.

[3] Like some other violets, this species forcefully ejects its mature seeds from the fruit capsules.

[4] The plant occupies many types of moist, shady, cool habitat.

[3] While the plant is not rare in general, it is considered to be an imperiled species in some regions, mainly on the periphery of its range, including the US states of Colorado, Connecticut (where it is listed as a special concern species)[5] Montana, Pennsylvania, and South Dakota.

[1] This plant, which was known at the time only from the vicinity of Montreal, was named by Frederick Traugott Pursh for Thomas Douglas, 5th Earl of Selkirk, who had chosen Pursh to serve as botanist of a proposed expedition to the Red River Colony in what is now Manitoba.