This is widespread in woods across east-central states on base-rich soils. In Ky. it is virtually unknown from more rugged Appalachian hills, except for a coll. of L. Garrison from LESL (EKY). Fruiting plants are sometimes heavily browsed by deer; an extensive but much browsed population in ANDE has generally failed to reproduce for over 20 years (LC of ANDE, pers. comm.). D. meadia is closely related to other North American species of this genus, but relatively robust in several dimensions; also 2n = 88 (versus 44). There is recent cladistic support for including Dodecatheon within Primula (Mast & Reveal 2007; FNA 8, W), though the latter has a distinct series of chromosome numbers within North America (2n = 18, 54, 72).