It grows in moist to wet soils, generally alongside the closely related Impatiens capensis, producing flowers from midsummer through fall.

They are tube or funnel shaped and 3–4 cm (1–1.5 in) long, with nectar stored at a narrow spur at the back of the flower.

When the seeds are ripe, they explode from the pod when touched, giving the plant its common name, touch-me-not.

Flowers of I. pallida have nectar spurs which are thought to have played a role in plant-pollinator coevolution.

In Canada, it is native in Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Newfoundland, and Nova Scotia.