diff --git a/backends-velox/src/main/scala/org/apache/gluten/backendsapi/velox/VeloxBackend.scala b/backends-velox/src/main/scala/org/apache/gluten/backendsapi/velox/VeloxBackend.scala
index 24d08a57920d..c64cc3d273a2 100644
--- a/backends-velox/src/main/scala/org/apache/gluten/backendsapi/velox/VeloxBackend.scala
+++ b/backends-velox/src/main/scala/org/apache/gluten/backendsapi/velox/VeloxBackend.scala
@@ -203,6 +203,14 @@ object VeloxBackendSettings extends BackendSettingsApi {
         return None
       }
       val fileLimit = GlutenConfig.get.parquetMetadataFallbackFileLimit
+      // Variant annotation check is always performed (not gated by
+      // parquetMetadataValidationEnabled) because it is a correctness issue.
+      val variantAnnotationResult =
+        ParquetMetadataUtils.validateVariantAnnotation(rootPaths, hadoopConf, fileLimit)
+      if (variantAnnotationResult.isDefined) {
+        return variantAnnotationResult.map(
+          reason => s"Detected unsupported metadata in parquet files: $reason")
+      }
       val parquetOptions = new ParquetOptions(CaseInsensitiveMap(properties), SQLConf.get)
       val parquetMetadataValidationResult =
         ParquetMetadataUtils.validateMetadata(rootPaths, hadoopConf, parquetOptions, fileLimit)
diff --git a/backends-velox/src/main/scala/org/apache/gluten/utils/ParquetMetadataUtils.scala b/backends-velox/src/main/scala/org/apache/gluten/utils/ParquetMetadataUtils.scala
index ab76cba4aa5d..dcb1051e664d 100644
--- a/backends-velox/src/main/scala/org/apache/gluten/utils/ParquetMetadataUtils.scala
+++ b/backends-velox/src/main/scala/org/apache/gluten/utils/ParquetMetadataUtils.scala
@@ -162,6 +162,48 @@ object ParquetMetadataUtils extends Logging {
     None
   }
 
+  /**
+   * Checks whether Parquet files contain variant logical type annotations that require fallback to
+   * vanilla Spark. This check is always performed (not gated by parquetMetadataValidationEnabled)
+   * because it is a correctness issue: Velox native reader does not check variant annotations.
+   */
+  def validateVariantAnnotation(
+      rootPaths: Seq[String],
+      hadoopConf: Configuration,
+      fileLimit: Int
+  ): Option[String] = {
+    rootPaths.foreach {
+      rootPath =>
+        val fs = new Path(rootPath).getFileSystem(hadoopConf)
+        try {
+          val filesIterator = fs.listFiles(new Path(rootPath), true)
+          var checkedFileCount = 0
+          while (filesIterator.hasNext && checkedFileCount < fileLimit) {
+            val fileStatus = filesIterator.next()
+            checkedFileCount += 1
+            try {
+              val footer = ParquetFooterReaderShim.readFooter(
+                hadoopConf,
+                fileStatus,
+                ParquetMetadataConverter.NO_FILTER)
+              if (
+                SparkShimLoader.getSparkShims
+                  .shouldFallbackForParquetVariantAnnotation(footer)
+              ) {
+                return Some("Variant annotation detected in Parquet file.")
+              }
+            } catch {
+              case _: Exception => // ignore
+            }
+          }
+        } catch {
+          case e: Exception =>
+            logWarning("Catch exception when checking variant annotation", e)
+        }
+    }
+    None
+  }
+
   private def isTimezoneFoundInMetadata(
       footer: ParquetMetadata,
       parquetOptions: ParquetOptions): Option[String] = {
diff --git a/gluten-ut/spark41/src/test/scala/org/apache/gluten/utils/velox/VeloxTestSettings.scala b/gluten-ut/spark41/src/test/scala/org/apache/gluten/utils/velox/VeloxTestSettings.scala
index 0dadfa1d0bd8..8b4886d376c7 100644
--- a/gluten-ut/spark41/src/test/scala/org/apache/gluten/utils/velox/VeloxTestSettings.scala
+++ b/gluten-ut/spark41/src/test/scala/org/apache/gluten/utils/velox/VeloxTestSettings.scala
@@ -397,7 +397,7 @@ class VeloxTestSettings extends BackendTestSettings {
     .exclude("parquet widening conversion ShortType -> DecimalType(20,0)")
     .exclude("parquet widening conversion ShortType -> DecimalType(38,0)")
     .exclude("parquet widening conversion ShortType -> DoubleType")
-  // TODO: 4.x enableSuite[GlutenParquetVariantShreddingSuite]  // 1 failure
+  enableSuite[GlutenParquetVariantShreddingSuite]
   // Generated suites for org.apache.spark.sql.execution.datasources.text
   // TODO: 4.x enableSuite[GlutenWholeTextFileV1Suite]  // 1 failure
   // TODO: 4.x enableSuite[GlutenWholeTextFileV2Suite]  // 1 failure
diff --git a/shims/common/src/main/scala/org/apache/gluten/sql/shims/SparkShims.scala b/shims/common/src/main/scala/org/apache/gluten/sql/shims/SparkShims.scala
index 1f6d015393f1..2f5350f38a08 100644
--- a/shims/common/src/main/scala/org/apache/gluten/sql/shims/SparkShims.scala
+++ b/shims/common/src/main/scala/org/apache/gluten/sql/shims/SparkShims.scala
@@ -237,6 +237,8 @@ trait SparkShims {
 
   def isParquetFileEncrypted(footer: ParquetMetadata): Boolean
 
+  def shouldFallbackForParquetVariantAnnotation(footer: ParquetMetadata): Boolean = false
+
   def getOtherConstantMetadataColumnValues(file: PartitionedFile): JMap[String, Object] =
     Map.empty[String, Any].asJava.asInstanceOf[JMap[String, Object]]
 
diff --git a/shims/spark41/src/main/scala/org/apache/gluten/sql/shims/spark41/Spark41Shims.scala b/shims/spark41/src/main/scala/org/apache/gluten/sql/shims/spark41/Spark41Shims.scala
index 0e3e752f9970..de894073e823 100644
--- a/shims/spark41/src/main/scala/org/apache/gluten/sql/shims/spark41/Spark41Shims.scala
+++ b/shims/spark41/src/main/scala/org/apache/gluten/sql/shims/spark41/Spark41Shims.scala
@@ -53,7 +53,7 @@ import org.apache.spark.sql.types._
 import org.apache.hadoop.fs.{FileStatus, Path}
 import org.apache.parquet.hadoop.metadata.{CompressionCodecName, ParquetMetadata}
 import org.apache.parquet.hadoop.metadata.FileMetaData.EncryptionType
-import org.apache.parquet.schema.MessageType
+import org.apache.parquet.schema.{GroupType, LogicalTypeAnnotation, MessageType}
 
 import java.time.ZoneOffset
 import java.util.{Map => JMap}
@@ -571,6 +571,22 @@ class Spark41Shims extends SparkShims {
     }
   }
 
+  override def shouldFallbackForParquetVariantAnnotation(footer: ParquetMetadata): Boolean = {
+    if (SQLConf.get.getConf(SQLConf.PARQUET_IGNORE_VARIANT_ANNOTATION)) {
+      return false
+    }
+    containsVariantAnnotation(footer.getFileMetaData.getSchema)
+  }
+
+  private def containsVariantAnnotation(groupType: GroupType): Boolean = {
+    groupType.getFields.asScala.exists {
+      field =>
+        Option(field.getLogicalTypeAnnotation)
+          .exists(_.isInstanceOf[LogicalTypeAnnotation.VariantLogicalTypeAnnotation]) ||
+        (!field.isPrimitive && containsVariantAnnotation(field.asGroupType()))
+    }
+  }
+
   override def getOtherConstantMetadataColumnValues(file: PartitionedFile): JMap[String, Object] =
     file.otherConstantMetadataColumnValues.asJava.asInstanceOf[JMap[String, Object]]