Wet or marshy shores and banks; borders of streams, rivers, lakes, and ponds; swamps, thickets, and clearings; bogs, sedge meadows, cedar swamps; ditches and swales.

The calyx and corolla are puberulent. White- and pink-flowered forms are known, but the white one seems not yet to be reported from Michigan. The flowers are solitary in the axils of normal to reduced leaves, and both flowers at a node turn to the same side, giving a distinct lateral appearance. Depauperate plants with leaves as short as in S. nervosa and S. parvula can be distinguished by having the leaves over twice as long as broad. In our plants of these two small species, the mid-cauline leaves are no more than twice as long as broad.

See notes under Scutellaria lateriflora for the hybrid S. × churchilliana.