Moist rich deciduous forests, floodplains; often in denser shade than C. bulbosa and in somewhat drier sites.

A showy species, distinctive in its pink to purple petals and blooming earlier than the similar white flowered Cardamine bulbosa; often flowering by early to mid-april. 

Named for David Bates Douglass, who accompanied the exploring expedition under Lewis Cass in 1820 to the Upper Great Lakes, and who was one of the first people to collect plants Michigan. Douglass's collection of this plant, however, appears to have come from near Buffalo, New York.