Moist shores, ditches, river banks, fields, and marshes; gardens, cultivated fields, and other disturbed sites, sometimes a serious weed; in sand (even dunes), mud, or clay.

Seldom collected with the small tubers, up to ca. 1 cm wide, which are borne at the ends of slender scaly rhizomes (resembling roots) that break easily. These rhizomes are very characteristic and together with the pale scales and large anthers, they make this one of the most easily recognized species. The thin easily broken rhizomes bearing abundant tubers allowing rapid vegetative spread are also the reason this is a serious weed.