Prostrate, acauline annual to perennial herb with erect scapes. Rhizome long, pointed, branched, slender, giving rise to a stoloniferous stern. Leaves 2.0-3.5 x 1.5-3.0 cm, broadly ovate, obtuse, hairy, cordate, serrate, 5-7-veined, sinus deep, petiole covered with deflexed hairs, often twice or thrice the length of lamina, upto 15 cm long; stipules free, broad lanceolate to ovate, acuminte, fringed or fimbriate. Flowers odorous, violet, upto 2.0 cm long on upto 20 cm long peduncle. Sepals 4.0-7.0 x 1.0-3.0 mm, ovate, obtuse, entire, cuneate. Petals obovate-oblong, obtuse, entire, up to 12 mm long, c. 5.0 mm broad; lateral petal 11-16 x 7.0 mm, large, oblong, obtuse, entire, spur straight or subcurvate, obtuse, c. 4 mm long. Ovary globose, 2.5-3.0 x 1.0-2.0 mm, glabrous, style 3.0-4.0 x 0.5-1 mm, laterally compressed, stigma beaked, beak directed forward. Capsule globose, 3-6-angled.

Fl. Per.: March-July.

Type: Habitat in Europae nemoribus, Herb. Linn. 1052. 11 (LINN).

Distribution: Pakistan, India, Iran Afghanistan, Iraq, Mediterranean region and Caucasia.

Frequently cultivated in gardens, up to 1900 m; occasionally found as an escape.