[3] Viola elatior grows to a height of 10 to 30 cm (4 to 12 in) from a creeping rhizome, with narrow, triangular leaves 7 to 15 mm (0.28 to 0.59 in) across.

The flowers are produced in late spring to early summer, 10 to 15 mm (0.4 to 0.6 in) diameter, pale bluish or yellowish-white with a short, greenish or yellowish spur.

Its habitat is confined to very local damp, lime-rich places, in long herbage (fens and limy marshes).

[4] In the British Isles, it is rare, confined to eastern and northern England and damp hollows with limestone soils in western Ireland.

[6][7] It occurs at a few locations in Northern Ireland, on rocky limestone lake shores around Upper Lough Erne and in turloughs or ephemeral pools around Fardrum, in County Fermanagh, and because of its rarity there, it is listed as a Northern Ireland Priority Species.