It is native to western North America from British Columbia to California, where it grows in moist mountain habitats.

Cardamine nuttallii is a perennial herb growing from a small, white rhizome.

The leaves are smooth or lobed along the edges and sometimes divided into a few smaller leaflets.

The inflorescence bears generally more than one pale purple, pink, or occasionally white flowers with petals each over a centimeter long.

gemmata is endemic to the Sequoia sempervirens redwood forests of northern California and southern Oregon.