Flower:

 Irregular 5-petaled white flower up to ½ inch (to 12 mm) long at the end of a long naked stalk usually held above or among the leaves at peak bloom. Petals are tinged greenish-yellow at the base; the 2 lateral petals lack tufts of hair (not bearded). The lower petal has numerous dark reddish to purple veins radiating from the center, and forms a short spur at the back.

Sepals are narrowly triangular to narrowly egg-shaped, pointed at the tip, and hairless.

Leaves and stems:

 Leaves are all basal; color is medium green. Mature leaves are 1 to 6+ inches (to 15+ cm) long, to 1 inch (to 29 mm) wide, mostly 3 to 6 times as long as wide, narrowly lance-elliptic, blunt to pointed at the tip, tapering at the base, sometimes abruptly near the base. Leaf edges are typically very shallowly toothed, the teeth rounded and tend to be widely spaced. Surfaces and leaf stalks are hairless. Plants form colonies from above ground horizontal stems (stolons) produced in summer.

Fruit:

Both petalled (chasmogamous) and petal-less, self-pollinating (cleistogamous) flowers produce fruit, in an ovoid capsule up to ½ inch (4 to 12 mm) long, initially green, erect when mature and drying light brown.

Seeds are dark brown to dark olive-brown, 1.1 to 1.4 mm long.

Notes:

According to the DNR, Lance-leaved Violet was listed as a State Special Concern species in 1984 and elevated to Threatened in 1996, due to habitat loss. Most of its natural habitat is within the Anoka Sandplain, and has been largely destroyed by development. This species is easy to ID by the leaves. It hybridizes with several other white violets, but any hybrids in Minnesota are not well documented.