It grows in lateritic clay-sand, loam, or decomposed shale soils in open woodland.

[1] It was first formally described by Johann Gottlieb Otto Tepper in 1892 from specimens he collected on the Fleurieu Peninsula.

Earlier in 1882, Tepper sent a description and specimens to Ferdinand von Mueller, who labeled the plants as D. whittakeri var.

In 1991, Robert J. Bates made the case for recognition at the species rank, authoring the illegitimate name D. aphylla in the process, a name not based on the first validly published description.

Lowrie and Conran note that D. praefolia is distinct from D. whittakeri (whose opposing characteristics presented in parentheses) by its white tubers (orange), leaves emerging after flowering (before flowering), and the ovate to obovate leaf shape (broadly spathulate), among other differences.