[4] The plant is rich in calcium and phosphorus and as such makes up the bulk of the diet of white-tailed deer in the northeastern United States in the spring, when lactating does and antler-growing bucks require extra amounts of those nutrients.

A seed is produced infrequently and most plants in a location are vegetative clones, spreading by their shallow, trailing, white rhizomes.

It is found in Canada from southeastern Yukon, southern Northwest Territories, into eastern British Columbia and east to Newfoundland and Labrador, and into St. Pierre and Miquelon.

It is also found in the northern United States from the Dakotas east, south along the Appalachian Mountains and disjunct populations in Colorado, Wyoming, Nebraska and Kansas.

[10] Maianthemum trifolium is also a small herb and has a distribution similar to M. canadense, but the flower parts are in sets of 3s, the leaf bases are tapered, not heart-shaped; it is found in wet habitat such as bogs.

[4] No subspecies are currently recognized, although in the western half of the range plants with hairs and consistently larger leaves have been treated as var.