[6] If a plant lacks sufficient evidence of flowering, the orientation of the hairs on the basal leaf stalk may be used to distinguish the two species.

In 1917, Oliver Atkins Farwell described a variety of Tiarella cordifolia sensu lato with a small bract on the flower stem.

[18] Tiarella stolonifera is typically found in moist, rich, deciduous woods with a fairly open understory, in partial to full shade.

Trees associated with the species include sugar maple (Acer saccharum), white ash (Fraxinus americana), yellow birch (Betula alleghaniensis), American beech (Fagus grandifolia), eastern hemlock (Tsuga canadensis), and northern white-cedar (Thuja occidentalis).

[19] In Wisconsin, T. stolonifera occurs in mature, second-growth sugar maple-beech or hemlock-hardwood forest with sparse shrub layers.

The ground flora is rich with spring ephemerals and other herbaceous species, including Dicentra, Cardamine, Viola, and Mitella diphylla.

In the Adirondack Mountains of New York, T. stolonifera commonly occurs on low-acidic sites under northern hardwoods, but it is also found along brooks in coniferous forests where organic acids cannot readily accumulate.

The species was probably an important element of the ground flora in at least parts of the original hemlock-white pine-northern hardwoods forest of New England.

In New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, T. stolonifera is found on fairly strong calcareous soils where there is some seepage water flowing to the surface.